Hogwarts Rebellion
by sheffers
Summary: Ginny's war was very different to Harry's war but just as important. The rebellion by the students of Hogwarts put the members of Dumbledore's Army into daily dangerous situations with Death Eaters.
1. The Importance of Blood Status

Disclaimer: All characters, places and objects you know belong to JK Rowling, I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while Disclaimer: All characters, places and objects you know belong to JK Rowling, I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while. Chapter One: The Importance of Blood Status

"Ginny," Arthur said as he put the day's copy of the _Daily Prophet_ down on the kitchen table. "Have you seen the newspaper?"

She looked closely at her father who was staring straight back at her. It was rare that he gave her such straight attention but right now he was holding her gaze. He was obviously determined that she was going to understand what was going on and what she needed to know.

Ginny pulled the paper towards her and glanced at the front page. Looking back up at her from the wizarding tabloid was the greasy haired, hook nosed professor; the Death Eater who had murdered Dumbledore was staring back up at her. He looked exceptionally smug and had every right to since he had just been declared the new Headmaster of Hogwarts. Hard cold fury burned inside her. That Death Eater had been responsible for so much pain and suffering over the last few months and was now responsible for her education. Worse than that, she was at the will of a man who, if he had got his way, would have had no problems in killing her brother.

How on earth could this be allowed to happen? And what could she do to change it? How could she make him pay?

"Ginny," her father said, breaking through her thoughts as if he were an accomplished Legilimens. "I need you to listen to me now."

"Arthur," her mother's voice drifted over from the kitchen sink, where she had been cleaning up the morning's breakfast plates, before they left. "We need to be going."

"This is important and will only take one moment," he turned his attention back to his daughter. "I want you to be very careful this year."

"What?"

"If there's one thing you can guarantee, it's that Snape knows all about the Order, our role in it, our family and more importantly, what went on between you and Harry." He paused to add weight to his words. "You will be watched very closely this year. Hogwarts will be a dangerous place especially," he dropped his voice and glanced at the window, "if you appear to know about Harry or support his actions."

She looked directly at him, brown eyes met blue as she returned the same stern gaze that he had given her, "You can't expect me to do nothing about this."

"I didn't say that I expect or want you to do nothing." He smiled at her. "I just want you to think long and carefully over what you do; don't put yourself in danger." Arthur got to his feet and kissed her on the top of her head. "Now, I must be getting to work; have a good term."

She watched carefully as her dad crossed the room and embraced her mum quickly. Her parents broke apart with a small kiss. Ginny was sure that her parents exchanged a worried look. They were positive that she was missing these looks but it was easy to tell the strain that had come on the family over the last month.

Molly Weasley looked shrewdly at her daughter, "Ginny, why don't you go upstairs and collect your trunk and you might as well take Pigwidgeon with you."

"But..." she started.

"_Now!_" Her mother's voice was raised.

She decided not to fight them, even though the frustration was flowing through every inch of her body. When were they going to stop treating her as a child? She had fought Death Eaters three times in the last two years, if you included the crashing of Bill and Fleur's wedding, with no more than a broken leg. She had the feeling that even after she came of age next year, they would still struggle to see her as anything other than the baby of the family.

Ginny got to her feet reluctantly and went to the stairs, but instead of going up to her room, she paused and sat down. She had sat here so often, hidden from her parents, as she listened to their hushed voices having a conversation that she was deemed too young to take part in. Carefully she pulled out an Extendable Ear from her pocket and let it trail down to the kitchen.

"Do you think that she will be okay?"

"She'll be fine, Molly," Arthur reassured her. "We are pure-blood," he continued in a bitter tone that Ginny had never heard before. "She is protected by a status that many would do a great deal for with everything happening under the new laws." He paused, obviously responding to some non-verbal form of communication. "Ginny is a fighter and she is intelligent with good instincts; she'll work out how to handle this all for the best."

"But what if she does something rash? What if she does something for Harry? What if she hears about all the 'Undesirable Number One' talk?" Her voice sounded worried. "Ginny has such a temper. What if she loses her temper?"

"I guess we will just have to trust her." There was a long pause. "I will see you tonight. Be careful at King's Cross; I wish I could be there with you."

"So do I, but we'll be fine." There was another long pause before, "Ginny, hurry up with that trunk, I want to leave now."

Ginny slowly climbed the rest of the stairs and went to her room to grab her trunk. With one hand on Ron's owl cage and the other on the large Hogwarts trunk, her eyes fell on a piece of parchment on her desk — the very thing that she had been writing last night. Dropping the cage and trunk with a rattle and thud, she crossed the room and stared at the piece of parchment. After what felt like an eternity, carefully and slowly she picked it up.

_Dear Harry,_

_The house has become a madhouse since you left. I'd love to tell you everything, but I keep getting hushed upstairs every time anyone arrives. Not that I've not heard anything; Fred and George took pity on me after the first meeting that followed the wedding and gave me some Extendable Ears to use. Luckily Mum hasn't put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door yet. I'm not sure if it's because she trusts me more than the boys or whether it's because she has resigned herself to the fact that I will find out anyway and doesn't want the house filled with Dung Bombs._

_Speaking of Mum, she has been extra protective recently, especially with all of you gone. Really, Harry, you could have given me some more warning before the quick exit. I wasn't that prepared, so the act took a while to get going. It has led to Mum mollycoddling me more than normal _—_ pun intended. She thinks that her baby has had her heart broken over the break up and maybe just this time she is right but don't you ever let her know that. And don't worry, I haven't told her why we broke up although once again, I think she may have a fair idea._

_Other than that, I've been playing a bit of Quidditch in the paddock. I've been trying some new moves, even perfecting the Divine Glide and Suicide Sprint _—_ where do they get those names? I know Quidditch is not that important at the moment, far from it, but it passes the time and keeps me from worrying about where you are. There's nothing like the feeling of flying, but I don't need to tell you about the feeling of leaving your worries on the ground and soaring above them._

_Everything is set for Hogwarts in the morning, not that I can see the point in it, but as I keep getting told, we all have our part to play and I'll do what I can. Not sure what that involves yet but I'm sure Neville and Luna will come up with some interesting ideas tomorrow. I wonder if McGonagall will let us reform the D.A., although somehow I think she'll have the same ideas as Mum about 'children' and wars._

_The only thing left to say, is how much I miss you and want to spend time with you. Is it selfish to want this damn war to end so I can have you there to hold my hand and not because people are dying? But then I have to keep reminding myself why I like you so much and that's because you are the hero here, you know what's right and are willing to sacrifice everything to get that right thing. _

_You know, each time I think about you 'like' is growing into so much more._

_Take care of yourself, Harry, and try not to do too many of those stupid, noble things like getting yourself killed. I really need you to make it back in one piece._

_Ginny._

Writing him daily letters was the only release that she had had. These letters provided the only sign that she was willing to show about how much she missed him and how desperate she was even to spend a second longer with him. If she could turn back the months she would make her kisses last that little bit longer, hold that little bit tighter in those hugs and not waste all those other hours when she was doing things that had not involved spending time with him.

While she may have broken up with both Dean and Michael, she had been the 'dumper' and not the 'dumpee'. More importantly, she hadn't had her heart broken before. Those relationships may have lasted longer than her one with Harry, but they hadn't been anywhere near as deep and they had been given their time to run their courses. The relationship with Harry had been cut short when it had just been starting to grow and blossom.

It just all seemed so unfair.

Looking out the window, she watched Errol fly into the kitchen directly below. It was amazing how life just went on. She looked aimlessly out the window for a further few minutes.

"Ginny," her mum's voice called up the stairs.

"I'll be down in a minute, Mum," she called back.

Ginny checked behind her to see that no one had followed her up the stairs. Once she knew it was safe, she opened the desk drawer and pulled out a set of matches.

Carefully she lit one of the matches and held it up against the light before picking up the letter in her other hand. Within seconds it caught light and she let it fall into a bowl as it shrivelled up into ashes. Emptying the contents out the window, she let all her disappointments and longings fall with the remains of the letter. There was no time for all of that; there were much more important things than a broken heart.

The journey to King's Cross in the taxi was in almost complete silence and tension filled the air. There was so much that she wanted to say that could not be said in front of a Muggle in the current climate and so many other things that neither of the Weasley women wanted to talk about.

How did you say goodbye when you knew that this may be the last time you said it?

Ginny felt a shudder run down her spine when she even thought about the goodbye and she felt her mother's hand rubbing the small of her back. They both knew that this school year was going to be different. There where no guarantees that she would return home safely and that she would have a home or family to return to.

She let her head fall on her mother's shoulder as they exited M25 and entered London. She could let her guard drop for that little while before she built it up for her year of hell. Only as the taxi pulled in at the entrance did she snap out of her daze and pull herself together.

King's Cross was crowded as always as they made their way through it and it appeared that the tension that they had felt in the taxi was extended to families littered across platform Nine and Three Quarters. Worried looks were etched across parents' faces and children that often shrugged their parents' hugs were holding on that little bit tighter. This was contrasted by the few, the likes of the Malfoys, Crabbes, Goyles, Parkinsons and Notts, strolling up and down like proud peacocks.

Ginny held onto her mother just like so many others and felt that little extra squeeze before she pulled away.

"I'll be fine, Mum." She spoke in a stiff tone as she glanced at the train.

"Just make sure you are." A forced smile fell on her mum's lips. "Sixth year is important, and your NEWTs are nastily exhausting for a reason, so make sure you devote your spare time to studying and not extracurricular clubs."

"I'll make sure I study," she said, not willing to commit to that promise. "And I'll be home for Christmas."

"I love you, Ginny," Molly said softly before she kissed her daughter on the forehead and steam bellowed out from beneath the train, "Now go. I don't want you in any trouble this year."

"Love you too, Mum," she said quickly, before hurrying to the train door and letting Neville who had just said goodbye to his grandmother help her with her trunk.

They both stood at the window as the train pulled out of the station before turning to look at each other.

"Let's get a compartment," Neville said, pulling his trunk down the train.

They made their way through the train, finally picking a compartment near the front of the train, which Luna seemed to be saving for them. Uncharacteristically, Luna lowered her copy of _The Quibbler _and she took a full part in the hurried and hushed conversations and Ginny filled them in on the summer activities. The conversation was quickly brought to a halt as Seamus Finnigan, Lavender Brown and the Patil twins entered the compartment.

The next hour was spent talking about Snape and the Carrows' new plans for Hogwarts which included a great deal of Snape bashing and shampoo related jokes. There were also muttered conversations about the ministry, the registration of Muggle-borns and the missing students from the train.

Around two hours into the journey as they were passing through Sherwood Forest, the train ground to a halt. Reacting on instinct Ginny got to her feet and looked out the window, worry filling every inch of her body. They were still hours away from Hogwarts. An involuntary shudder ran down her spine as she thought of the last time that the train had stopped like this. She was still not sure that she had the courage to face Dementors and the onset of nightmares that she would face if she was forced to remember the events of her first year of Hogwarts.

Gulping, she pushed her fears down to the pit of her stomach. She was a Gryffindor, she was braver than this. If Harry could face Voldemort then surely she could handle some hooded cronies. However, the Dark Forest was doing nothing to help those fears right now.

Slowly Ginny turned back round, Neville and Seamus both with their wands out were standing at the door.

"What is it?" she asked with only a note of fear in her voice.

"Death Eaters," Neville muttered shutting the door.

A wave of relief filled her body even though she knew that she should still be worried. Death Eaters, with their ever-growing power were a huge threat, with no qualms about killing people who were not committed to their cause. But Death Eaters were humans, no matter how inhumanly they acted. She could stand up to humans without that wave of fear and the sense of guilt and shame filling her insides, freezing her on the spot.

Her courage grew as she placed her hand firmly around her wand and the door opened again.

"Names?" the masked figure asked.

"Who's asking?" Ginny shot back, raising her wand and feeling Neville and Luna, who were now flanking her did the same thing.

"I am here on behalf of Minister Thicknesse. Now before anyone gets hurt and without the need to spill unnecessary _**pure**_-blood, I will ask again." He spoke in barely a whisper but there was no doubting the meanness in his voice. "Names?

"Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Padma Patil, Seamus Finnigan, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and Ginevra Weasley," Lavender rattled off quickly in a scared voice.

"All fine in here," the Death Eater said to someone out in the corridor before turning back to them. "Weasleys need to learn their place and learn when it is appropriate for them to speak to those thought to be much higher than they are." He pointed his wand directly at Ginny. "How's the boyfriend?"

"Wouldn't know," she spoke quickly without stopping to think, "not seen him in months, but I heard that you were looking for him, so is there any chance you could tell me?"

"Stupefy!"

Ginny's body rocketed backwards with the power of the Stunning Spell and hit the wall below the window. Blacking out as her head thudded against the wall, she could barely hear the noise of footsteps and the voices of her concerned friends. After what could have only been minutes, although it seemed like much longer, she felt herself coming to her senses as the train started to move again. When her eyes slowly fluttered open, she could see Neville cleaning a bloody nose, Seamus holding an ice bag to his eye and Padma in a corner of the compartment using her wand to clean some blood coming from a tear in the clothing of her sister's arm.

"What happened?"

"They outnumbered us," Neville answered quietly, "we are going to have to be smarter than that when we take them on this year."

"What were they on here for?" Ginny asked, although she was sure she already knew the answer.

"Checking our blood status," Seamus spat, as he stared at the window.

Using Luna for support, she got to her feet. She almost sank straight back to the floor as she saw a group of a dozen children who looked to be between first- and fourth-years surrounded by twice as many Death Eaters. These were students who obviously did not have the right blood status.

"Muggle-borns or kids of Muggle-borns," Seamus said in a whisper that was deafening.

Ginny sank down to her knees and placed her head in her hands. She had never really thought about her blood status and the fact that she was a pure-blood. Yes, there had been remarks in the past by Slytherin students but that was it. Believing in people's pure-blood status was, at the very least, primitive and racist but now it was growing into so much more as the Death Eaters looked to clean the blood and it turned to murder.

The rest of the journey was a blur as she focused on her DA coin from two years ago, trying to work out how Hermione had worked the Protean Charm when she made the enchanted galleons. Whether the others were aware of her failure to manipulate the coin, she wasn't sure. Her preoccupation took over to the extent that she was only dully aware of leaving the train and entering the castle only taking a moment to notice that the only house table that was not missing any students was the Slytherin one before she let Snape's speech wash over her as she pushed her plate away at the feast.

There had to be a way of stopping what happened on the train from taking place again.

That night she barely slept as she looked through Ron's battered copy of the Standard Book of Spells Grade 6 and tried not to think of anything but the DA coin.

At some point that night she must have fallen asleep since, before she knew it, Demelza's hand was on her shoulder and she was getting ready for the first day of the new school year. At breakfast she managed to hold off some of the concerned looks by forcing down a piece of toast, burning her mouth on some coffee and half heartedly joining in the Quidditch conversation, even forcing a smile as she explained that she had been made captain.

When the volume of the noise in the Great Hall dropped and people left for their classes, her stillness became more obvious. She knew if she didn't start acting soon, people would start to become worried about her; she was rarely this quiet or still. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to begin the performance she had started doing around Harry in the holidays.

Smiling, she turned to one of the girls in her dormitory room, as McGonagall approached the sixth-years with their timetables. "So how do you reckon they're going to do this since we didn't finish our OWLs?"

"Dunno, maybe they'll use our predicted grades," Elizabeth replied as she played with a strand of her brown hair. "I hope so, as Slughorn predicted me an O and I need to have made it into Potions if I'm going to become a Healer like Dad wants me to."

"I'm sure Slughorn will take you," Ginny reassured her friend.

The next ten minutes were fairly standard as McGonagall handed out timetables, but her daze returned when the Head of House gave Ginny the piece of parchment. Ginny stared down at the copy of this year's new timetable. Her eyes were fixed on one block, period one and two, Monday was the Dark Arts with Professor A. Carrow. She continued to glare at the piece of parchment; no longer was she studying Defence _Against_ the Dark Arts, but now just the Dark Arts with a Death Eater. She knew how they had technically got away with changing the name of the subject by claiming it better suited the current climate, but it still unnerved her. She did not even want to think about what spells they would be forced to learn without their counter deflections.

"Ginny," she heard Demelza call through her thoughts. "Are you with us today?"

"Yeah, come on, Ginny," Ritchie echoed his girlfriend's call. "We've already spent forever waiting for McGonagall to get round to dealing with you."

"Don't we always wait forever, waiting for McGonagall to stop talking to her about something or another," Elizabeth said with a small grin, "and she always ends up talking herself out of trouble."

"I've not done anything wrong," Ginny said almost as a reflex action, only half listening to what her friends were saying.

"Yet," Elizabeth replied quickly, "but it really is getting boring waiting for you to get your timetable. I propose we dump her until she changes her surname to something nearer the start of the alphabet." Her grin grew. "Potter would do, at least that moves you up five names on the register."

Ginny looked back down at the timetable again; she did not want them to see her face. Potter may do as a surname in the way distant future, but right now she was nowhere near to looking that far into it. Right now, she would just give anything to know that Harry, Ron and Hermione were all safe. Before she had left for school her brothers had tried to reassure her. Bill stated that no news was good news because with all the press that they were giving it, the Ministry would want to show that they had caught Harry, while Fred had said if she was going to date someone with a massive target on his head she had to expect this and George reminded her that Harry had had the odd scrape before and got through them all. She guessed that they were right but that did not stop her worrying.

She felt Demelza's warm hand grab her shaking one. She hadn't realised how much it was shaking until it was in the calm, still hand of her friend. But it wasn't just her hand that was shaking, it was as if every nerve in her body was in a fury about everything that was happening.

"Come on, Ginny," Demelza gave her arm a small pull. "It's really not worth being late to this lesson."

Ginny felt herself getting to her feet almost as if she were on automatic pilot. She was barely paying attention as she made her way out of the Great Hall, through the entrance way and to the large marble staircase that led to the first floor. Without much thought she turned left and headed down to the large Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. However, while she may not have noticed her steps she could see other students keeping their distance and hear an increased number of whispers around her and those whispers were not only limited to unknown students but to her friends as well.

Had she become the new Hogwarts celebrity?

She looked up from the glares to see a few students already gathered outside the room. She smiled to see Luna detached from a group of Ravenclaws, reading a copy of _The Quibbler_. Giving a quick wave to her Gryffindor friends, she strode over to Luna.

"I need to talk to you," she muttered as the door opened and she pulled her friend to the back of the classroom.

Taking the seats in the back row of the classroom she quickly pulled her book out of her bag, opened it and placed it on her desk as a barrier to the rest of the class. She often bemoaned the size of the Hogwarts textbook but today it was perfect to hide whatever was on her desk. She waited rather impatiently, tapping her quill on the table as Luna put _The Quibbler_ on the table and got out her quills, parchment and ink.

She thought irritably that if patience was a virtue, it was highly overrated.

"You know who that is," Ginny hissed finally as Carrow started to speak.

Luna looked up and studied the new professor. "He looks rather different in those robes," she observed.

Ginny glared at the professor. She had last seen that Death Eater when he was trying to hex her, laughing at her as she dodged the Cruciatus Curse. The cruel laughs showed her that he was enjoying the sport of trying to hurt her. The words _'You can't dance forever, Pretty' _were fixed in her head. If she closed her eyes right now she was positive that she would be able to see those red sparks flying just past her, hear Harry's Impediment jinx and the pig-like squeal that had followed it as he had slammed into a wall. If she could remember it all that clearly, she was positive that the Death Eater could.

"Harper, Andrew."

"Yes, sir."

"Jones, Elizabeth."

"Yes, sir."

"Kane, Bethany."

"Yes, sir."

"Kyle, Lionel."

"Yes, sir."

"Lovegood, Luna."

"Yes, sir," her friend replied in her dreamlike voice.

Ginny found herself barely paying attention to a lot of the register, instead continuing to glare defiantly as he ran through the rest of the names. She had no intention of making that Death Eater forget their last meeting and she was not going to listen to his talks on the Dark Arts. Instead, she was going to fight him each step of the way.

"We need a DA meeting tonight," she whispered to Luna. "See who's willing to fight against this."

"Oh, it will be fun to have those again," Luna said conversationally as she turned a page of _The Quibbler_. "Can we work the Galleons?"

"I'm working on it." Ginny glanced at the magazine to see if there was anything interesting in it. "The problem is with the Protean Charm. Hermione made Harry's the key one and changing his would effect the others, not the other way around." She looked at Luna. "Do you know how to get around that? It would be useful to have a Ravenclaw on the task."

"I can see how that would help."

"Weasley, Ginevra." Carrow's voice broke through their conversation; he had obviously reached the end of the register.

"Yes," Ginny muttered.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes, sir," she replied with as much bitterness in the final word as she could muster.

The squat. lumpy wizard placed his parchment down on his desk, picking up a short black wand. He held the wand in this hand, running his fingers up and down it before turning his attention back to the class. He looked at the students in front of him, like a dragon looking at its prey. He was looking for a victim and Ginny was positive she knew who it was going to be.

"You will be studying the three main curses this year, practising them and putting them into use on those in detentions."

"That's illegal," Ginny called rashly before thinking about what she was doing.

All the warnings that her parents had given her had disappeared. How could she keep her head down and keep out of trouble when the new administration wanted them to torture people? She refused to sit here and do nothing.

Besides, it looked like she would not be able to keep a low profile even if she wanted to.

A swipe of Carrow's wand and the protective shield of her book, 'The Dark Arts', had fallen flat to the table. Everyone in the class was now looking at her with hungry, eager, worried or just plan curious looks on their faces. She picked up her own wand and held onto it tightly, feeling the power radiate through her.

"Laws have been changed." He was smiling. "Come and be the example for the class."

Ginny glared at him. As much as she did not want to go up there she had a feeling there was no way to avoid it. She was going to go up there willingly and not be dragged up like a puppet. She got to her feet, slamming her stool behind her so it made a loud thud as it hit the floor. She walked between the desks, looking straight at the Death Eater, showing no signs of fear but she could feel her heart pounding hard against her ribcage.

"There." He pointed to a spot opposite him.

"Successful Cruciatus' Curses are performed with hatred." Carrow leered at her. A shiver ran down her spine as she could see a slightly lustful expression in his eyes that made her feel sick. "That will come with practice." Slowly he raised his wand, "Cru—"

"Protego." She waved her wand in the air as a shield emerged between the two of them, knocking the Death Eater backwards so he slammed against the windows.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor and detention, Weasley," he said as he slowly got to his feet, "All open your books and copy out chapter one."


	2. Resistance Begins

Chapter Two: Resistance Begins

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The rest of the Dark Arts lesson went without too much incident, unless you count Amycus Carrow's lecherous glances and crude remarks and Ginny had to admit that she was quietly proud of her behaviour and control of her temper for the rest of the double lesson. However, the rest of the morning promised to be just as bad as the first ten minutes as now she had a two hour session with Amycus' sister and she had a feeling that this would be a very different Muggle Studies lesson to any she had had before.

Without too much thought, almost if she was operating under the Imperius Curse, she made her way to the first floor. In just the short distance between the two classrooms she found this to be an easier journey than before. While she had a numb feeling that was surrounding her, she found she did not need to think of what had happened in the last lesson and what was going to happen in the next. She was even able to ignore the fact that everyone seemed to be watching her movements.

She went to the back of the line with the rest of the Gryffindors and waited for the bell to go and for Alecto Carrow to appear at the door. She could tell when the female Death Eater had arrived as even in a daze she could recognise the hushed silence that had fallen and used that as a cue to enter the classroom.

Just as they were entering the classroom on the first floor, Demelza turned towards Ginny, pulling her out of her daze as she spoke directly to her and touched her shoulder. "Ginny."

"Yeah?" she muttered in reply.

"I'm begging you, whatever she says, do not react; we can't afford to lose our captain before the season has even started," Demelza flashed her a small smile, "and I really don't feel up to the job of captaining us against Slytherin." Demelza's tone changed. "But more importantly, you have already scored one detention," her voice shook, "and those detentions sound nasty."

"I won't do anything that Harry wouldn't have."

Demelza sighed. "You're going to cause trouble."

"I'm going to do what's right."

In a similar fashion to her Dark Arts lesson she headed to the back of the room and built her protective wall with her books. She reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of parchment on which she started to doodle as she let Alecto Carrow's words wash over her without effect. The Death Eater was always going to lie and say something that, not only did she not agree but which fought against her very principles.

"Forget anything that you have learnt before today in your lessons with Professor Burbage since recent Ministry investigations have found her teaching to be inaccurate. To say that Muggles and Muggle-borns have equal status with those born of noble descent is a lie at best."

"What a load of - " she found herself muttering as she turned her ink green.

"Ginny," Demelza warned.

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth and without thinking drew a pair of eyes.

Ginny gazed down at her parchment which now contained a lighting bolt as well as a pair of eyes. Carefully she turned the piece of parchment over and found herself absentmindedly drawing a heart and sketching out the letters HP. Once again she stared at the parchment.

She really needed to get a grip on herself.

If she was this upset and temperamental after Harry, Ron and Hermione being gone for barely a month, what was she going to be like if this went on for years?

What was she going to be like if they never came back?

She shuddered as she looked up and saw the Death Eater pacing at the front of the classroom as she spoke. She couldn't allow herself to think like that. Harry, Ron and Hermione were all coming back and when they did they were not going to find Hogwarts defeated. She was going to do what little she could to keep Harry's first real home as he remembered it, whether the Death Eaters were in charge of the school or not.

With a defiant gaze she looked up and saw the cool eyes and hard smile of the Death Eater looking directly at her.

"Cleaning the blood is not a new idea, Muggles and Muggle-borns have tried to remove Wizards from society since Carthage was destroyed by Rome in 149 BC by their calendar. The most recent examples have been in Germany in the 1940s, Congo in the 1960s and it is still taking place in Serbia. This has been disguised as something known as ethnic cleansing. Over the course of this year we will be looking at ways to fight back against those of inferior blood status and how Britain is in desperate need of cleaning so we can keep our fine traditions and noble history."

Ginny tightened her hold on the eight and a half inches of hazel wood fuelled by unicorn hair as she took several long, deep, controlled breaths. She could control her temper; she must control her temper.

Demelza was right, she had to be careful.

She had to keep her temper and if she could not do that for herself, she had to do it for her house and, more importantly, her mum who was under enough stress as it was.

"And what makes matters worse, some of our kind allow these Mudbloods into our noble world and then pollute the blood further by reproducing with them. Not only should witches and wizards be aware of their birthright, but we should not allow their polluted and inferior linage into society. A perfect example is shown with the noble and long standing Potter family when James Potter married a Mudblood and produced Undesirable Number One, the runt of the Wizarding world and murderer of Albus Dumbledore."

Ginny got to her feet. "This is a load of bollocks."

As she raised her wand, she could feel the heat coursing through it and see the red flecks sparking out of it. Her temper had gone far beyond being able to control it.

She was furious.

"You - " Ginny spat out the word, " - invaded this school. You know as well as I do, considering you were firing sparks out your wand at my brother, as your own brother attacked me. Our dear new headmaster killed Dumbledore on Voldemort's orders."

The whole class had fallen into a deafening silence as Alecto Carrow glared directly at her, her hand on her own wand.

"What?" Ginny shrugged, her temper slowly coming back under control. "Did I break some type of taboo or something?"

"Lower your wand, Miss Weasley." The Death Eater aimed her own wand directly at Ginny's heart. "I would not want to have to use some of those curses that you have just claimed that I have used before." Ginny lowered her wand. "Good girl, now place it on the table and stand outside the door. I will not have lies in my classroom."

Reluctantly she placed her wand into Demelza's hand and walked down the aisle between the sets of desks to the door. Once she reached the door she slammed it as hard as she could behind her.

She paced up and down the first floor corridor outside the Muggle Studies classroom. She swore under her breath and made her footsteps as loud as she could. She had inherited the Weasley temper and it was taking over her whole body. To say that she was fuming was the understatement of the century. She knew she should regret her actions but she could not bring herself to do so. She would not allow anyone to talk about Harry like that, especially when he was not here to defend himself.

As she turned her back on the classroom, two things happened in very quick succession. A noise came from the door closing and she felt a hand press against her mouth. She took a sharp intake of breath as anger changed to shock. It wasn t until Andrew Harper spun her round and slammed her back against a wall that breath came back to her.

"I offered to teach you about your birthright and save you from your second detention of the day." Her eyes widened as she could feel her heart pounding against her chest as the reserve Slytherin Seeker spoke in a low voice.

There was no denying the fact that she was scared. This was not a duel; she was not on equal footing and she did not even have her wand. Her stomach turned as she remembered the stories that were being whispered about the treatment of blood traitor witches by Death Eaters.

"Now as long as you do as I say – everything I say – I can get you out of this."

She could feel tears welling in her eyes as, without freeing her mouth, he tore her shirt with one quick wave of his wand.

He leaned in closer and, if possible, her heart was pounding even faster. She could feel his every ragged breath on her skin. He whispered in her ear as freed her mouth, "Scream."

Normally she would have fought against being told what to do, especially if the person doing the telling was a Slytherin who she had many confrontations with in the past but she was in a very different Hogwarts now and she was going to have to learn the new rules, otherwise things would get very ugly very quickly. She could not allow herself to get hit by one of the Unforgivables, which seemed to be the new detention of choice, nor to be given Veritaserum like Umbridge had tried to use in her reign at Hogwarts.

She knew too much to let that happen.

Ginny let out a high pitched scream that echoed around the corridor which was followed by the sound of scraping chairs.

"Now go back in there, act shaken and don't tell anyone about this." She just nodded at his words, numb. "And, Ginny," She nodded again. "I'm not going to help you out again. You are a Gryffindor blood-traitor, no matter how hot you are."

She made her way back into the classroom in an uneasy fashion. She didn t look up as she made her way to the back row. She was in no doubt that all the eyes of her classmates were following her. She sat down quietly, thankful of her back-row choice since it was harder for people to look at her there. Still without speaking and her mind buzzing from what had just happened, she took the wand back from Demelza and fixed her shirt.

Ginny got the book out and began to pretend to read the chapter that Carrow had assigned without question. She then spent the next thirty minutes with her head down doodling on a piece of parchment, thinking up things that she would like to do to the person who had given her the Monday morning from Hell on her timetable. Needless to say, she had never been more eager for a morning to end at Hogwarts.

There was a protective guard of Demelza, Ritchie and Elizabeth as she left the classroom for the Great Hall at quarter to one. Once she reached the Great Hall, she looked up and smiled for the first time that day to see that Neville had saved her a seat.

"What lessons have you had this morning?" he asked in a worried tone.

"Dark Arts for a double and then Muggle Studies for a double," she muttered, prodding at her stew with her spoon.

Neville glanced up at the teachers' table. "And they targeted you."

Ginny followed his gaze, and saw both McGonagall and Hagrid looking down at her, concerned looks in their eyes. "I didn't help the situation." She shrugged, trying to dismiss what had just happened as only a minor incident. "One detention," she shuddered at the thought of her Muggle Studies lesson, "and one lesson on how to be a good pure-blood."

"We are going to fight back," Neville said, dropping his voice.

"I know." Her smile grew; she knew just the thing that she could do this afternoon that would give her an instant come back. Her smile grew to a grin as the pair of brown eyes interlocked. "Fancy keeping watch while I practice my handwriting on some walls?"

"Anytime," he said with a smile, picking up his own spoon and taking a large mouthful of potatoes, before turning to her. "Ginny?"

"Yeah?"

"How would you feel about getting an honorary big brother?" he asked, slightly nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know, since Ron couldn't make it back."

She wrapped her hand round his neck and hugged him. Just a few months ago, she would have told anyone that she didn t need another brother, that six was more than enough but things had changed.

"I'd really like that, Neville."

Neville smiled. "Well, for my first role as big brother, I'm going to say that if you want to show off your fine handwriting skills," he glanced down at her uneaten meal, frowning, "I'm going to make you eat something first."

Ginny grinned at him as she swallowed a spoonful of her stew. "Better?"

"Much."

The pair of Gryffindors disappeared out of the Great Hall, checking that both Carrows were still at the staff table, now engaged with a conversation with Snape. As they left the dining room, Ginny was positive that she saw Snape look up, although just as quickly she thought that she must have been mistaken as he drew both Carrows into a deeper conversation.

Neville stayed at the end of the first floor Muggle Studies classroom. He had already explained that she could do the first act of defiance as she had done on the morning from Hell; she had suffered much more than he had recently and was in greater need of an act of revenge. Besides, he had said that he was sure that she would do the same for him later in the week when he had his own axe to grind and, of course, he was right.

She paused as she looked at the wall.

There was so much that she wanted to say that she couldn't. There were things that could wait and she knew that short slogans or phrases were always more effective. With a small smile Ginny reached into her bag and grabbed a permanent marker that Fred had given her the night before she had returned to Hogwarts, just in case she needed it.

Ginny stood back and admired her handwork, the bright yellow writing flashed red every couple of minutes. She reread it, happy with the message:

'_Support Harry Potter – Dumbledore's Army reformed.'_

It was simple, to the point and would get the right people to ask the right questions. She hoped the meaning was clear – even if it was not possible to get back to talk to all the others, they might be able to get a meeting together.

"What do you think?" she asked Neville.

Neville turned to look for the first time, breaking guard duty. "Brilliant." He came closer and ran his hand across the writing thoughtfully. "But you know, it's obvious it's your handwriting. We should write in capitals next time."

"Let them do their worst." She shrugged; she doubted the Carrows had enough common sense to put that together. Not that it mattered if the pair of Death Eaters did; they couldn't hurt her any more than she was already hurting today. "They can't take much more from me than what's already been taken and they really can't hurt me more."

Neville looked directly at her, making sure that he was holding her gaze before he spoke. "Don't give up already, Ginny. They wouldn't want that and I'm pretty sure that they want you back in one piece." Ginny looked down at the floor but Neville put his hand under her chin so that she was forced to look at him and spoke with such belief and confidence that it was hard not to believe him. "They will come back."

"I wish I had your confidence," she said in barely a whisper before quickly changing the subject. "Can you pass on the message about meeting tonight?"

"Sure, I've got a free period now and have yet to get homework."

Ginny forced a smile. "I'll trade you your Monday for mine. The Carrows have both given essays," she let out another sigh, "and I've still got a double of potions for Slughorn before the day is over."

Double Potions in the afternoon was fairly uneventful compared to the morning and not very hard. Slughorn showed them the four potions that they would be learning in the next two years: Amortentina, Felix Felicis, Polyjuice Potion and Veritaserum, before setting them the task of making a decent attempt at the Draught of Living Death with the prize of a bottle of Felix Felicis.

A renewed energy filled her body as she focused for the first time that day. She was very keen on winning that little bottle since it had come in so handy when Harry had won it. However, although Slughorn made positive comments about her potion, the little bottle went to the Ravenclaw, Gerry Kennedy.

She took herself straight to the Room of Requirement after dinner and was happy to find the same room that they had used two years ago. It was good to know that despite everything some things would stay the same. Even if it was the room that she had first learnt to fight Death Eaters in and that she had not entered it in two years, it was oddly comforting.

It only took Neville and Luna ten minutes to arrive and to join her in the room. As the three of them settled down on the large cushions used for Stunning and waited to see which of the others would arrive, Luna passed them her old DA coin before taking Ginny's and Neville's. The two Gryffindors sat in amazement as Luna corrected the Protean Charm on their coins.

"Wow, Luna," Ginny muttered, "I guess I was right about getting a Ravenclaw on the case."

"And Luna's not just your average Ravenclaw," Neville said with a smile.

"So anyone can send messages on these coins to each other now?" Ginny double checked.

Luna nodded. "I did consider using the free period to write to Hermione Granger but since she is currently unavailable and was not certain where to dispatch the owl to," Luna started conversationally, "I thought that it would be rather useful to be able to communicate with those here at Hogwarts."

Ginny smiled; despite everything that was happening and everything that had already been stacked against them, they still had some things that could work in their favour. "We could really make this work. We could really fight them."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Neville's smile grew to a broad grin. "I have two of the most talented and beautiful sixth-years working with me."

Ginny felt herself blush. "Let's just make sure that this school is here for Harry, Ron and Hermione to come back to."

"Those who love us never leave us." Luna spoke in her soft tones. "You have found your soul mate and soul mates are still there after the rain has washed away the blood of battle."

Neville took Ginny's hand in his. "Let's start spilling that blood." He softly squeezed it as he reassured her for the second time that day. "Hermione is not going to miss taking her NEWTs. Ron – he's as stubborn as anything I've ever known and he won't let the Death Eaters get the better of him. And Harry. Well, if you ask me, and I know nothing about the opposite sex in this field, but I reckon that he loves you."

Apart from the Carrow and Snape bashing, the first meeting of the reopened DA went like many of those of the Order of the Phoenix. They discussed meeting times, how they could get messages across and the tactics they could use against the Hogwarts' Death Eaters. There was less practising of spells and more of the development of guerrilla warfare.

They had grown up in the last two years and had adapted to the more dangerous climate.

The next morning she went to breakfast in a much better mood, despite the detention that she would have that evening. The first DA meeting of the year had given her hope that Hogwarts would not be as bad as she had thought it would be yesterday lunchtime and, even if it was, they were going to fight. She was not the only one that did not believe a word the Ministry of Magic said and knew that both the Ministry and Hogwarts itself was being indirectly run by Voldemort through his Death Eaters.

While she may have been forced to go to these lessons, she would cause as much trouble as she could. After all, it was the only part that she could play and she would do it well.

As the post owls swooped into the Great Hall, she picked up a piece of toast and poured a mug of coffee. She looked up automatically as the owls circled the hall looking for their owner. Taking a gulp of the coffee, she took a second look at the owls; she was sure it was not just her imagination that there were many more owls arriving than normal. She looked up in surprise as Errol landed next to her. It was not at all like her mum to send the elderly owl on such a long trip after one day s worth of lessons.

Eagerly she ripped off the message, neglecting to pay attention to Errol and pulled open the letter as the elderly owl hooted indignantly and pecked at her toast.

_Dear Ginny,_

_Hope your first couple of days have gone well and you have not been given any detentions yet. Just because you did not become a prefect, does not mean there's any reason to get the same number of detentions as you did last year._

_Nothing new has happened here except that your dad has been over to Bill and Fleur's cottage to help set up their garden. Fred and George came home for dinner last night, claiming they needed extra food due to the demands of work at the moment. You know what your brothers are like over food. Fred also said that he plans to send you a letter about Quidditch tactics for the first match. He said he knew how to beat Slytherins well.  
_

_Speaking of Quidditch, while I am still delighted that you were made captain, you need to remember to stay careful. Quidditch is still a dangerous sport and as such an important figure that you have now become, you will be a target. I'm sure there will be many more Bludgers aimed at you that you will need to dodge this year. It is really not worth those extra nights in the hospital wing and I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey has lots of injuries to treat this year.  
_

_Also remember you are studying for your NEWTs this year and you are talented enough to do very well in them. That would mean that you should not be joining anymore extracurricular clubs; Quidditch takes up enough time as it is.  
_

_There is still no change with Ron. We just have to hope that no news is good news because it means that he is still hanging in there. I will let you know if anything changes.  
_

_We all miss you already and everyone sends their love. We are already looking forward to getting you back home for Christmas. Look after yourself.  
_

_All my love,  
_

_Mum_

Guilt surfaced inside her. She understood the hidden meanings in the letter perfectly and she was already going against everything that had been asked of her and she had no intention to change that.

Her guilt stayed with her throughout the morning, and although her double lessons of Herbology and Charms were less emotionally taxing than Monday morning, her lack of awareness took its toll and she struggled, earning reprimands from both Sprout and Flitwick. By the afternoon her guilt had started to ease, only to be replaced by fear in her free period as she prepared for her detention.

Breaking her promise to Neville, she left the common room before he had returned from his Charms lesson and went straight to her detention without going to the Great Hall first. When she arrived at Carrow's office, she found a single table set aside with a long piece of parchment and a familiar looking black quill.

"Welcome, Miss Weasley," said the wheezy voice, "please make yourself comfortable; I know I will be doing so."

Ginny felt as shiver run down her spine as she took the seat by the small desk without talking or even looking up at the Death Eater.

"Unfortunately, you earned your detention so quickly that none of the other students are ready to practise the Cruciatus Curse." Ginny glanced up to see him grinning. "However, Madam Under Secretary Umbridge has very kindly lent me this wonderful quill and suggested I reminded you of your blood status. I wish you to write the word 'pureblood' until I tell you to stop."

Ginny picked up the quill and scribbled the word in her own blood:

_**Pureblood**_


	3. Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Chapter Three: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The rest of the week passed more quietly than the first couple days. With Ginny's hand still glistening red with her tattoo and the shock that Andrew Harper had given her. Apart from the odd bit of graffiti and the planning for the next D.A meeting, she had kept a relatively low profile, acting like any other sixth year. She had, even after constant pressure from Ritchie and advice from Demelza, helped to give the right impression of pretending to be a normal sixth year arranged the Quidditch trials for seven o'clock. After all to most people at the school, Quidditch was the most important thing there was and no one could understand why the Gryffindors did not already have a team.

It was the weekend, however, that was going to bring the action back. The weekend was going to be the first chance they could get away with another D.A meeting and this meeting was going to have some new members, some sixth year friends who wanted to fight. She could hardly wait for her Friday afternoon Transfiguration lesson to end and the closer to 3:30 it got the more irritable she became, even letting out a large groan as her Head of House wrote a mountain of homework on the board, earning one of McGonagall infamous frowns.

Finally after what seemed like years later, Ginny placed her Transfiguration book back into her bag, throwing the notes she had made that lesson on top of it. She capped her ink bottle so quickly that it split as she bundled it with her quill in there before tapping it briefly with her wand and letting it lock. Pocketing her wand, she swung the bag over her shoulder, massaging it with one hand. McGonagall had really gone over the top with the notes today; she must have written over twelve inches in the last hour.

"Let's go," she said as she turned to Ritchie, who was still packing his things away, "we've got Quidditch trials tonight."

"I did wonder why you always arrange it after McGonagall's class; she never lets us out on time." He smiled. "So much for being Gryffindors."

"We could never question her for favouritism," Ginny said, glancing to the front of the class, "but at least you know she'll let us off with homework the week before the Slytherin match."

"Which is more than can be said for today." Ritchie gestured towards the board and the title for the essay that had been set. "But at least I don't get detention every other night so I can get mine finished."

"Where's the fun of the challenge when you actually have time to meet all your commitments?"

Ritchie laughed. "Harry doesn't know what he's missing not being with you."

"I hope so," she said so quietly that only she could hear.

She knew Harry had far more important things to be thinking about than her but she could not help missing him, thinking of him, wishing that she could run back up to the common room and tell him about her day before falling asleep in his arms in front of the fire. And a very small selfish part of her hoped that he was feeling the same way; hoped that he saw her face just before he fell asleep just as she saw his.

"Miss Weasley, may I have a word?" Professor McGonagall said as Ginny placed her hand on the door.

"Yeah, I guess."

She was frantically racking her mind to try and work out what she had done wrong. There were plenty of things that she had done in the last week as part of setting up the Hogwarts rebellion that could earn her detention at the very least. However she had to be caught to earn those detentions and lectures and since her first day back she had been very careful and she was sure she hadn't been caught for anything else yet but her Head of House's stern expression was making her start to doubt herself.

"Close the door please, Coote. Miss Weasley will see you at your Quidditch trials, I'm sure." Ginny watched as Ritchie carried out McGonagall instructions and with a small wave he was gone, leaving the two women alone. McGonagall flicked her wand and a chair emerged at the other side of her desk. "Have a seat."

"A seat?"

"Quickly, please, Miss Weasley," McGonagall said a touch of urgency in her voice.

"What's this about, Professor?" Ginny asked as she sat in the hard backed chair.

McGonagall looked at her with her infamous stern gaze before continuing in the same quick tones. "Some rather fine 'Support Harry Potter' graffiti by the greenhouses which, unless I am very much mistaken, is in your handwriting."

She kept her face impassive as she looked back at the older woman. "I'm not sure I understand what you're talking about, Professor."

"Really, Miss Weasley. I am not stupid and neither are you so let's not play games here." McGonagall paused as teacher and student continued to look at each other. "The graffiti was yours."

Ginny offered a small nod. Fred and George had always taught her never to confess to anything, something she considered to be very sound advice, but she was now very much in uncharted territory. The small nod had already fought against all her natural instincts to talk herself out of trouble. She was not going to openly admit to defacing the school even if it was for a good cause.

"You need to be careful," the Professor told her simply. "You are being watched very carefully and your misdemeanours have not gone unnoticed."

"What?"

"I told you we don't have time for games." The stern tone had returned. "You know why. You are Harry Potter's girlfriend and your family are all members of the Order of the Phoenix. Do you think Professor Snape needs any more reasons?"

"Harry broke up with me," she said bluntly, not wishing to go into the subject.

"And you think people will remember that, Ginny?" McGonagall shocked her with the use of her first name.

She had not heard the professor call her Ginny since the end of her first year and her escape from the Chamber of Secrets. It was the first time the seriousness of the situation had hit her.

"Those numerous occasions that you spent by Mr Potter's side will not go unforgotten. At the very least you will be seen as a beacon of support for Potter and more likely you will be remembered as his girlfriend." She looked at her directly in the eyes. "You need to stop getting detentions; they only draw more attention. We can't protect you in detentions and we believe that these detentions will become more extreme in the very near future. They will take pleasure in hurting you."

Ginny just shrugged as the elderly witch held Ginny's hand up briefly studying the wording on it. "Then, Ginny, think about it this way. You are in a unique position here. You know a lot about the running of your own rebellion group, plus the Order of the Phoenix and Mr Potter himself. Do you not think that Death Eaters would find that very valuable information?"

Feeling more than a little ashamed, Ginny nodded again before the Professor continued. "If you want to fight, I can not stop you, nor do I wish to, but please be more careful. Do not put yourself in unnecessary danger and if you are not doing that for yourself, think of the others that those unnecessary situations will hurt. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Guilt had filled her insides as she looked back at the floor, avoiding the cause of her rethink. "Yes, Professor."

"And, Miss Weasley..."

Ginny glanced up nervously worried about what was going to be said next. "Yes, Professor?"

"Please try to put together a good team this year; I'm still rather fond having the cup in my office."

Ginny flashed her teacher a truly genuine smile. "I'll try my best, Professor."

McGonagall smiled back. "Right, off to dinner."

Maybe she had underestimated the importance of playing Quidditch this year. She had seen being given the role of captain as a chore and she was positive that part of the reason that she had this role was to fill up her time. She was positive that both her Head of House and her parents as well as other worried Order members expected the captaincy to take up any free time she had and to stop her from getting into trouble, thus making the role more of a chore than a privilege.

But now that she thought about it, she needed Quidditch. It was so easy to leave your troubles on the ground when you were flying. The goal post gave her a simple focus with the only worry being that she missed the target. However, if that happened she knew she would get another chance. It would allow her to take out all her anger and frustration in a competitive situation without anyone questioning her actions. Not to mention, the very petty feeling that it would feel even better than normal to beat the Slytherins at the moment.

She left the classroom and headed straight to the Great Hall meeting Demelza and Ritchie at the Gryffindor table. Her enthusiasm grew as she allowed herself to take full part in the conversation with her friends, really listening and answering their questions for the first time. She felt a familiar spark and joy bubbling inside her as she spoke. Despite everything else she couldn't help but love this sport; it was her relief.

Ginny got down to the pitch early, straight after dinner. The adrenaline filled her body as she kicked off from the ground and sped through the air, scoring several goals before she landed.

There was a small echo of hands clapping as she landed. Bowing her head slightly she studied the group before her. It was small, barely a dozen people there for the three positions. She looked from those hopeful faces and up to the masses in the stands.

"What's going on?" Ginny hissed.

"I think people are afraid to be on the team this year with you as captain." Demelza whispered, "It's almost like shouting out in a Carrow lesson as to be seen to be siding with you."

"So much for being Gryffindor, I guess." She shrugged as she looked back up at the crowd. She did not like the idea of putting other people in danger if that was going to be the case but at the same time she didn't like feeling like someone with a nasty case of Dragon Pox. Taking a long deep breath, she forced a smile as she felt Demelza's hand on her shoulder. "At least it means that we won't be here forever then."

"That has to be a good thing." Ritchie grinned at her as he slipped his hand into his girlfriend's. "I mean, that Transfiguration homework is going to take hours." His grin grew and his eyes twinkled with mischief. "And it will leave us with a longer time for the party tonight."

"And don't forget, whatever happens, we have your back." Demelza was smiling too. "We support both you and Harry."

Ginny's thanks shone through her smile.

With renewed energy, she organised the players into groups. It was hard not to feed off her friends' natural buzz and it felt good to feel that she was not on her own. She turned briefly to face them when the groups were set. She was not sure she would ever be able to explain how much they were helping her by letting her still be herself and resist everything that was going on when the odds were all stacked against her and despite the fact that those who she loved had been pulled so violently away from her.

Taking another long deep breath, she continued to select her team. She could really do this. In a similar fashion to what Harry had done last year she sent the four wannabe chasers up into the air. She floated in mid air to watch as the players performed a couple of simple drills.

An hour later and her Quidditch team had been selected. The thin and gangly third year Kiera Keane had scored more than a dozen goals so she joined as a Chaser. Her twin brother Cillian, the only one who had made any saves against her, had taken the position of Keeper. Choosing someone to take Harry's old position as Seeker was not as easy. There were no stand out candidates and deep down she knew no one would have been able to impress her enough to take the position so the real answer here would be to take up the position herself but something irrational deep down inside her wanted to keep the position open for him to return. After some careful thought and some hushed discussions with Demelza, who was already taking on the role of vice captain, she chose the athletically built and enthusiastic fourth year, Natalie McDonald, to join Jimmy Peaks, Ritchie Coote and Demelza Robins who retained their positions.

Saturday saw the first Quidditch practice of the year and for a first session it showed a lot of promise. The team was far from the same technically gifted level of earlier teams but it did have an unmatched togetherness and spirit. Sunday brought a mammoth homework session as she kept up the pretence of being just a normal sixth year student. A pretence that was dropped at six o'clock on Sunday evening as she sat in the middle of the Room of Requirement with a Skiving Snackbox open in front of her.

Ginny struggled to stop the buzz she felt from the group assembled before her from overtaking her. She couldn't help it. No matter how small, it felt wonderful to be doing something that might be helping Harry. Add to that the reassurances from both Neville and Luna that this could well work and would not be a fruitless gesture added to her natural high.

Her buzz grew as Neville smiled then nodded at her to start the meeting. He really was a true friend. After realising how much that this would mean to her, he had let her take the lead. And now she could not help but feel in total control as she stood in front of her own classmates and Harry's former ones.

"I know that Weasley products are banned but I thought it was time we took some direct action here," Ginny said as a small smile crossed her face. "After all, this stuff worked against Umbridge."

"So," Neville backed her up, "in your lesson with the Carrows, just bite one end of the sweet as you go in and wait for the blood, sickness and fever to overtake you, making you ill. As soon as you're let out, bite the other side and you'll be free to decorate the school with some more slogans that support Harry."

"You need to remember that one should be very careful regarding the timing of consumption of the sweets," Luna added in a song-like tone.

Ginny smiled at her as she continued, it felt good to be doing something that might actually work. "Yeah, as I was reminded the other day, we're being watched."

"So are you going to try out this stuff too?" Michael Corner asked as he played with a fainting fancy between his thumb and forefinger.

She stared and met her former boyfriend's gaze. "Tomorrow, period one."

The next morning she drew on all her spirit and courage as, instead of heading to the back of the class, she sat in the front row, completely visible to the entire class as well as to the loathsome Death Eater. She fought the urge to build up her protective shield of books.

She was going to do this and she was going to do this right.

True to her word, within minutes of entering the Dark Arts classroom on Monday morning she had swallowed the orange end of a Nosebleed Nougat sweet. Slipping the purple end of the sweet into her pocket, she waited less than a minute for the onset of blood. Smelling the rust of the blood, she ignored the instinct to cover her nose; the whole point here was to make as much mess as possible. As soon as the flow of blood passed her lips and hit the table she shot her right wrist up into the air.

Gulping, and fighting off a wave of nausea, she waited for the Death Eater to turn round as she spat out the word, "Professor."

The squat and lumpy man turned round, looking at her with his lopsided leer. Ginny met his eyes directly, ignoring the shiver that ran down her spine; she had been here before. She just needed to keep her nerve and, more importantly, her balance as she felt herself pale as the blood began to drain from her body and she felt faint. It was only a matter of time before she escaped from the hellish lesson.

Carrow met her gaze with his wheezy giggle. "Detention, Miss Weasley."

"What for?" she spluttered through the blood that was now on her lips. "Being sick? Needing to go to the hospital wing?"

"For use of Weasley products," that evil smile was present on his face, "and for the mess you have caused to this classroom." His grin grew. "I shall see you in my office tonight."

Not willing to give in that easily, Ginny allowed herself to black out on the desk instead of taking the purple end of the sweet, only to receive a lecture from Madam Pomfrey when she came round in the hospital wing at the start of period three. She zoned out the Hogwarts' matron's rant on dangerous pranks and unfit teachers as she focused on the two hours of hell from which she had freed herself.

As soon as the stern Healer had allowed her to escape the confines of the hospital wing, she darted up six flights of stairs to the Room of Requirement. She had one thought and one thought only: that they were not going to get away with this. If she needed to up the ante then she would and there were two people who would help her do that without any questions. After passing the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy three times, the door opened to allow her access to that private floo connection.

Striding across the room she found a small box containing the glittering floo powder above the only item in the room. Quickly she reached into her bag and pulled out pen and parchment. With a plan brewing in her mind, Ginny jotted down a long list of her brother's products. There was going to be no holding back now, whatever the sacrifice it may take on her part.

She crouched down to the empty fire gate with a fistful of powder in her hand. Her whole body was shaking as she stuck her head into the fireplace. She was taking a huge risk here, especially with no one playing guard for her.

Ginny dropped the fistful of powder onto the logs stacked neatly beneath her and at once they exploded into green flames.

"Ninety-three Diagon Alley."

Her knees stuck firmly to the stone cold floor of the Room of Requirement, but her head was spinning, hurtling through the emerald green fire and into a variety of colours before it stopped abruptly. There she was staring out of the fireplace in the small flat above her brothers' shop.

"Fred! George!" She shouted at the top of her voice.

"Ginny!" Her brother's shocked voice replied.

"Hey, Fred," she said as her twin brother sank to his own knees.

It felt so good to see his face. There was so much she wanted to say to him, so much that she wanted to do right now, not least was to throw her arms around him in a hug, but she could not let herself think like that; she needed to keep a straight face now and to put an on an act. She could not let him see her pain or have a good idea of what was going on with her.

Ginny took a long deep breath and resumed the act that she had started of pretending that everything was fine, since that June day with Harry after the funeral by the Hogwarts Lake.

"Well," he had regained his composure just as quickly as the shock had come and was now grinning at her, "you've been causing a fair bit of trouble already." His grin had grown. "I'm impressed."

She grinned back. "I'm honoured, since it's coming from Hogwarts' best ever prankster."

"Just remember," Fred laughed, and it was so good to hear his laugh, like a spontaneous boost to every part of her, "who you learnt all this from when you write the autobiography with Harry."

"Of course," she replied as she felt her face flush red and she was sure that had nothing to do with the heat of the fire. "So, do you fancy helping out with stage two?"

"Me!?" He spoke in mock shocked tones. "Break Hogwarts rules? How could you suggest such an idea to a respectable member of the community!"

"Come on, Fred," she spoke in a more urgent tone, becoming very aware of the time as she heard movement in the corridors outside the room. It must be lunchtime. "Meet me Wednesday afternoon in Hogsmeade."

"Tut tut, Ginny," he continued in mock outraged tones, "Missing class – I really can't say I condone that."

"Just be there," she said urgently as her heart skipped a couple of beats and the noise outside grew.

"Okay," he spoke in a more serious tone as he studied her face carefully, "do you need me to bring anything?"

She pulled a list out of her pocket that she had written after yesterday's DA meeting, and handed it over. "Disguise it, okay; I have to get it back past Snape."

Fred took the list and pocketed it. "It's free of charge."

Despite the ever increasing noise and tension, she grinned. "Did I mention that you're my favourite brother?"

Fred laughed, "You said the same thing to Bill the other week."

"Well, I was his bridesmaid then. Plus, a woman has every right to change her mind." She flinched as she heard a banging on the door.

Fred resisted the joke as he looked her straight in her eyes. "Are you okay, Ginny?"

"I'm fine," her voice was almost pleading with him to understand. "Just be there, okay, and I'll be fine."

"I will be."

"Well, I better go then." Ginny smiled. "See you Wednesday."

"See you Wednesday," Fred repeated, "and Ginny, you be careful, okay?"

"Will be."

Ginny pulled her spinning head out of the fire. She pushed herself against the back of a stone wall as she allowed herself to settle down. Missing the whole of lunch, she calmed down just in time to go to her Potions class.

Potions was a blur.

Detention was painful and repetitive.

Tuesday raced through without notice and before she knew it, it was Wednesday lunchtime.

At quarter to one as she left Transfiguration she ignored the crowds and nervously made her way up to the third floor corridor. Her heart was pounding as she reached the statue of the One-Eyed Witch. It only started to calm down as she was sprinting through the passage to the Honeydukes cellar.

She passed through the streets and made her way slowly up to the caves in the mountains. The first time she stopped her run was when she saw a pair of red haired men by the mouth of one of the mountain dwellings. However the pause was only brief. As strong as she had pretended to be, she had wanted to be held by those who loved her for such a long time. She broke into a quick walk.

"I thought that Hogwarts meals were good," Fred commented as she walked down the road to the caves.

"What do you mean?" she asked as she got closer and hugged both her twin brothers.

"You look to have lost weight," George obsessed.

"How do you think I slipped away so easily?" she joked.

"Don't, Ginny." Fred looked more serious than she had ever seen him as he studied her entire body and his eyes fell on her left hand. "What's that?"

She shrugged as she tried to pull her hand out of his grasp. "Just last week's detention."

Fred kept a firm hold on her hand, pulling her shoulder slightly as he showed her 'pureblood' tattoo to George. "Mum's going to have kittens when she sees this."

Panic rose inside her at Fred's words. Despite everything she could not bear to cause either of her parents more pain. "Do they know you're here?"

"You should never lie to your mother," Fred replied in the perfect impersonation of Percy.

"And does she know that you're meeting me?" she asked.

"Now, Ginny," Fred tutted, "you know what Mum doesn't know can't hurt us. Isn't that right, Lugless?"

Ginny groaned at yet another ear joke as George replied. "Perfectly, brother, dear."

She grinned, at least she was not going to cause her parents more worry – well not until she used the product, anyway, and that was still going to be weeks away. "Did you bring everything on the list?"

"We're shocked," Fred gestured at his brother as they spoke, "you even have to ask." He shook his head. "Who do you think we are?"

"It's all carefully disguised as spare bits of parchment, quills and so on." George continued as he took her school bag off her. "Quite ingenious, really."

"Superb."

"Inspired."

"Marvellous."

"Splendid."

"Magnificent."

"Wonderfully devilish."

"I get it; the pair of you are brilliant." Ginny smiled as the last few rolls of parchment got pushed into her school bag. "I promise to put it to good use."

"And here's your alibi, too," George added as he handed her a large bag of Honeydukes chocolates.

"Thanks," she said placing them in her bag, turning to go back to the school.

Fred placed his hand on her shoulder. "And we're going to spring you out of there soon."

"I'm not leaving," she spoke in a fierce tone, "I'm fighting, Fred. I'm doing the little I can; don't take that away from me."

"Whatever you want, Ginny, we'll stick by you," George said, placing his hand on her other shoulder.

"As long as you make sure you use some of those fireworks in an enclosed place," Fred said with a forced smile.

"Will do."

"Okay, last thing," Fred passed her a piece of paper. "Listen to the radio at ten tonight, password is 'Harry'."

George pulled her into a strong hug so that she could hardly breathe but instead of making a jibe about her ribs she hugged him back. Somehow, the time for jokes seemed to have been long gone. "Just you be careful."

Fred took over the hug. "And do us proud."

Ginny just grinned back at them before turning back to the path to Hogsmeade. She didn't even allow herself one glance back as she darted down the pathway. If she looked back at them she knew she would not have the courage to return to the terror of the school. Nor did she want to see those grave looks of worry on their faces. That was not how she wanted to remember them when she was kept away.

She did not notice her surroundings until she heard a low hiss.

"Is that the Weasley girl?"

The eager voice brought her sprint to a halt. She knew Death Eaters were stationed here and it only made sense for them to be marking the exits to the Hogwarts secret passageways. After being so careful about her escape from the school, she could kick herself for this oversight. McGonagall was right, Death Eaters would love to get their hands on her and there she was making it easier for them.

"It looks like her."

"She's a cute little thing. Nice hips, fine breasts, developing nicely."

"Fancy having some fun?"

"Why not? Might as well entertain ourselves with the girlfriend while we wait for Potter to show."

"Not to mention putting Arthur Weasley in his place."

"Blood traitors need to be reminded of their status."

Her heart was pounding so badly that she thought it was going to burst through her ribcage as she ducked into the shadows between the shops and waited for the noise to die down. Her body shook as she stood in the dark. She was positive that if the Death Eaters caught her, the Andrew Harper experience would be taken to the next level and she didn't think that she was strong enough to survive that.

It was dark and curfew had long passed before she dared move again.

Carefully, she slipped back into Honeydukes and down into the store room. Once inside the secret passageway she broke into the run that she had begun so many hours ago. She only stopped to draw breath when she had reached the other end of the tunnel.

Without thinking and keen to head straight for the showers, Ginny climbed back through the statue of the One-Eyed Witch that opened onto the third floor. Briefly she looked up and down the corridor and let out a huge sigh of relief.

She was out of there.

Away from the Death Eaters.

Safe.

Or at least as safe as she could be at Hogwarts.

Now she had nothing to worry about other than missing her curfew. Grinning slightly to herself, she moved her legs into a jog. She could be back to the relative safety of Gryffindor Tower within a matter of minutes.

Her slow jog down the corridor came to a sudden halt. There was a man stopping her movements – a tall man with dark greasy hair.

Snape turned to face her and smiled. "Miss Weasley."


	4. Banned

Chapter Four: Banned

"Miss Weasley."

Ginny froze on the spot as she stared straight back at the Hogwarts Headmaster. She may have been stupid not to check the corridor before she ran out of it but she was not going to back down. She had not backed down to Snape as a first year who the then greasy-haired Potions master had tried to intimidate and she would be damned if she would back down now.

She was a lot stronger than she was back then.

Ginny looked straight into the cold black eyes, defiantly, for just a few seconds until she remembered his ability as a skilled Legilimens. She dropped her gaze instantly; she had too much going on in her head and knew far too much to give one of Voldemort's key supporters access to everything she had in her mind. She was not going to betray her friends, family or Harry by letting Snape into her head, she would not willingly give him any information that he did not already know. She was going to be strong and use her stubborn streak to hold out. She was not going to be the weak link, the one who gave away information on Harry.

"Miss Weasley," he spoke again in his dry cold voice. "what are you doing here?"

She shrugged, continuing to look at the floor. "Just wandering."

"After curfew, that is against the rules," he sneered at her, "And I do believe that is not the only rule you have broken today."

Ginny shrugged again, this time without speaking.

Snape was still glaring at her and a chill ran down her spine, his gaze really was unnerving. "You were also missing from the Muggle Studies register that I received this afternoon."

"I haven't learnt my new timetable yet." She swore in her head but continued to keep her voice free from any emotion, this was just another part of her great act. If she could act carefree around Harry and not like her heart was tearing in two, she was positive that she could keep her emotions in check now. After all, she wanted to keep this act up. "I thought it was a free."

"I strongly suggest that you carry your timetable around in future, Miss Weasley," the Headmaster said, spite lacing the tones of his voice as Ginny felt her face being forced upwards as she glared back at Snape. She was disgusted that he had manipulated her actions. Quickly she remembered Snape's special talent as the Death Eater studied her face and kept it blank. "Where have you been?"

"Just wandering," she repeated in a slightly muffled tone.

"Wandering around Hogsmeade?" His cold black eyes bore down on her, sneering at her. "If anyone uses the passageways to Hogsmeade an alarm goes off in my office." His sneer grew to a grin and his eyes narrowed to slits as if he was a snake closing in on his prey. "Empty your pockets."

Thoughts quickly flashed into and out of her head, all equally useless, there was no way to avoid this and she just had to hope that Snape did not manage to read the whole truth.

She pulled her enchanted Galleon out of her pocket, rueing the fact that she had not left it in the common room, and passed it over to the Death Eater. Her heart was pounding so fast as Snape studied the D.A. coin — if anyone knew what this coin really was it would be Snape. He had to know what it was after everything that had happened at the Ministry two years ago these coins had to have been mentioned in Order meetings. She struggled to keep her face impassive and if Snape could have heard her heart, that clearly would have given her away as it pounded so hard inside her ribcage. She silently cursed the fact that Dumbledore had trusted his murderer and now they were left with the consequences.

Snape frowned, throwing the coin back at her. "And your bag."

Whispering silent prayers that Fred and George had done a good job with disguising the products, she handed over a mixture of her own quills, parchment and books. She held her breath as he rolled out a long piece of parchment and slowly studied it. She forced herself to breathe naturally, letting out long, slow, calm breaths as the Headmaster ran his hands over the disguised products but she could not help a sharp intake of breath as Snape got out his wand.

Snape smiled. "Hand over your bag."

The Hogwarts Headmaster snatched the bag from her as soon as she offered it. He quickly pulled out of the bag of sweets. "And what are these?"

Ginny shrugged, trying to hide the sarcasm from her voice. That would not go down well and she hardly needed to land herself in anymore trouble. "Sweets, sir."

"Confiscated," Snape said, venom dripping in his tone, "I shall personally be checking all your mail in and out of this school in the future." He smiled. "And I think it would be appropriate to ban you from Hogsmeade too. Just to make sure you do not choose to associate with any undesirables as well as other blood-traitors." His cold black eyes met her warm brown ones, fire meeting ice, in the space between them. "You will learn the importance of your blood status, Miss Weasley." He took hold of her hand, smiling at the word on it, and sending a shiver down Ginny's spine, as she attempted unsuccessfully to pull against his grip. "And we will teach you to honour your birthright."

Ginny's eyes looked down at the single word marked into her skin. There was one thing for certain; no matter how little she cared about her birthright, she was not going to be able to forget it. She was going learn the new regime's view on pure-bloods and accept them or be made into a scapegoat and be a target at every opportunity possible.

"Severus," a wheezy voice called as Ginny glared back defiantly at the Hogwarts Headmaster.

"Amycus," Snape greeted the Dark Arts teacher, breaking the gaze.

Carrow was leering at her; using all her power she glared back at him with a look of disgust in her eyes. That man really was sick. She was young enough to be his daughter and if he was looking at her like that in her school uniform he really needed his mind tested. But then Death Eaters were hardly known for either their intellect or morals, so she should not really be surprised by the Dark Arts Professor's behaviour.

"I heard the girl was breaking school rules," excitement was ringing in his voice, "I believe my skills are needed here."

"Ah, Amycus," Snape crooned, stroking his wand, "I believe we are going to have a change in the procedure here."

"What?" The Death Eater spat, clearly shocked. "I am responsible for school discipline."

"Miss Weasley here has already proved herself to be a chronic offender when it comes to school rules, and we both know what acquaintances she has." He looked at Ginny, attempting to make eye contact, but instead of meeting his glare she looked down at the floor. She knew what he was about to try and Snape was not entering her mind — not if she could help it. "I will be taking personal responsibility for Miss Weasley's punishment. I'm sure we will all benefit when I access her mind."

"And her punishment is?"

"Life ban from Hogsmeade." Ginny forced herself not to shrug at Snape's words. That was no real big deal, especially after the close encounter she had already had with Death Eaters there. Besides, as Umbridge had shown before, the life ban would only be valid while Snape was in control. The arrogance of some would never cease to amaze her. "And she is going to be copying out some of my personal notes on Undesirable Number One and the stain he is on respectable society."

Ginny felt her eyes widen as she looked up into Snape's eyes in shock; she felt that she had just been kicked in the stomach. Whatever was in that Death Eater's accounts on Harry was not going to make pleasant reading.

"It is obvious in that worthless mind of hers that she loves," he scoffed at the word, "that boy. It will be her punishment to hear some truths and I have no doubt that the punishment will be long and painful for her."

Snape turned to face her. "My office, tomorrow. Wait by the gargoyle outside the office at six o'clock." He let out a cold laugh that chilled as it echoed round the corridors and ran down her spine. "And it would be polite to meet my eyes then, Miss Weasley. Now back to your common room."

She did not need telling twice; she was more than eager to leave the two Death Eaters.

Ginny scooped up her bag and almost ran down the seventh floor corridor, before taking the staircase down to the safety of the sixth floor. This route may take longer, but it felt safer. Her heart was pounding hard with every step she took, making controlling her emotions all but impossible. The frustrations of the day were starting to take their toll as tears welled in her eyes. Her emotions were all over the place: the fear, anger, guilt, sense of longing, pain, feeling of helplessness and the need to rebel. She felt like she was going to explode and now tomorrow she was going to be alone with Snape for Merlin knew how long.

She gulped down her fears, trying to push them into the pit of her stomach. She had known the risk what she was taking when she left the school and this would not be her first detention with the former Potions Master, nor was it likely to be her last and she would not let some greasy haired git get the better of her.

Things would work out and no Death Eater in Hogwarts, Hogsmeade or anywhere else was going to scare her.

The further she got from the pair of Death Eaters, the slower her heart rate got. It stopped pounding against her chest and started to return to normal. She slowed her run to a quick walk and pulled her arm roughly across her face to dry her tears. Making sure that all her tears had fallen, she was careful to be sure they were well hidden, interwoven in the coarse wool of her school uniform. She would not go back to the common room defeated. She was a Weasley and stronger than this.

If Harry could face Voldemort, she could deal with a couple of hours with Snape.

She slowed her walk further still as she reached the seventh floor corridor. Avoiding any chatter with the Fat Lady she gave the password and climbed through the portrait hole. She glanced round the common room to see it still almost full, cursing under her breath as she made her way further into the room.

"Ginny!" Neville called. "Where on earth have you been? We thought the Death Eaters had you."

She forcibly stopped herself from falling to her knees; Neville's worried face was like another hammer blow hitting her as her guilt returned. That added to her fear, she could still see those Death Eater's in Hogsmeade, still hear their voices. Things had been so close earlier; all those rumours were obviously true. Blood-traitors were taught lessons and she, in the eyes of this regime, was a blood-traitor.

Ginny gulped, the reality sinking home. Death Eaters would love to get their hands on her. Teaching Harry Potter's girlfriend a lesson and sending a blow against her family would be too good to resist if they could get their hands on her. "They almost did."

Neville's expression softened as he went to her, wrapping his arm round her and leading her to the large sofas. "What happened?"

"I met Fred and George in Hogsmeade." She offered him a weak smile that died almost instantly. "I have some great products to use but they have Death Eaters all over Hogsmeade and at the entrances to the secret passageways and the rumours are true: they want to punish blood-traitors. And I'm probably one of the biggest blood-traitors that there is. Then, Snape was waiting at this end."

"Are you okay?" Ritchie asked, looking at Ginny with concerned, worried eyes and holding Demelza closer to him, as if he could shield her from this.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, I'm banned from Hogsmeade but really with the Death Eaters there, that's no big deal." She forced a smile, this one lasting a little longer. "And a detention with Snape in his office tomorrow."

"Oh, Ginny," Demelza sighed, it was clear that everyone knew the impact of these words.

Neville took her hand in his. "Listen to me." She looked into his warm, caring brown eyes. "I'm not going to say this again. You do _not_ fight this alone and you need to stop putting yourself in so much danger."

"But it's…" she started.

"No! We fight as a group," Seamus interrupted her, getting up from his chair, "We are all Dumbledore's Army here and will all work together."

"And none of us are taking any risks," Parvati backed him up.

"Especially you, Ginny," Lavender continued her friend's train of thought, "they seem to want to get you bad and to make you suffer for Ron, Harry and Hermione's disappearance."

"And it's not hard to tell why, they want Harry so bad," Demelza continued, "not to mention any Order member they can get, and you're here as their sitting duck."

"So we fight, but we do it together, without pushing you on the frontline," Neville continued. "Frontline soldiers may be brave but they fall first; we don't want anyone to fall to him and suffer what they are offering. We can show up on the frontline occasionally, raising the profile but we take things in turns, no one gets hurt so bad that they can't come back and you're already hurting." His voice was so strong and contained a powerful quality. "So it's about time you listen to those older than you." He added with a grin. "You got it this time?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "it's nothing like being bullied." The tension in the room broke slightly with a couple of laughs, and Ginny forced another smile. "But Fred did mention something that might help. Pass me the radio."

Ginny slumped down to the floor with her back against the large cushy chair. She pulled out her wand, beating out various rhythms on the top while all the dials whirled. She caught a couple of different stations, but as soon as she hit the password the radio lit up and familiar voices breathed life into the room.

The sixth- and seventh-year Gryffindors all fell still and became hooked on every single word, eager to get an uncensored account on the outside world.

"Hello, my name is River and welcome to the very first episode of Potterwatch."

"That's Lee Jordan," Seamus hissed.

"Shh," several voices shot back at him.

They were all hooked, as if they had fasted for too long and now they had a great feast before them to fill them. Ginny herself sat stunned, emotion welling inside her. This is what she had wanted, what she had needed, and the feeling that she was not alone was refreshing. They were all fighting, those both in and out of Hogwarts, and in some way that kept them contented.

"We have found a secure location and are hoping to bring you regular updates about the wizarding world." Lee continued, "but before all that, I would like to introduce you to two of my fellow contributors, joining me here this evening, Royal and Romulus. Evening, boys."

"Hi."

"Evening, River."

"But before we hear from Royal and Romulus," Lee went on, "let's take a moment to update you on the news that the Wizarding Wireless Network News and the _Daily Prophet_ don't think is important enough to mention."

"First, the chief Death Eater, you know the one, has tabooed his own name so for your own safety, folks, we encourage you to come up with some more creative name for Lord Thingy."

"Second, we have some very sad news. The bodies of Reginald Cattermole, his wife Mary Elizabeth and their children, Maisie, Ellie and Alfred have been found just north of Portsmouth. And a Muggle family of four has been found dead by the killing curse in Swansea."

Lee paused. "Listeners, I'd like to invite you to join us in a minute's silence in the name of Reginald, Mary Elizabeth, Maise, Ellie and Alfred Cattermole and the countless number of unnamed Muggles that have been murdered by Death Eaters."

Silence fell both on the radio and in the Gryffindor common room, the reality hitting home. They were at war. Things outside the castle walls were unbelievably worse than what was going on inside it, at least the Death Eaters had not shed any blood so far within the wizarding school. Outside was different. People were dying. Any hopes that they may have clung to for continuing their childhoods had gone. Now was not the time for games, or even for studying. Now was the time for action.

"Thank you," said Lee's voice. "And here is Royal with an update on how the new wizarding order is affecting the Muggles."

"Thanks, River," a deep measured voice spoke.

"Who's that?" Lavender hissed.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt," Ginny replied quickly, not wanting a debate to interrupt her lifeline. "He was one of the best Aurors in the Ministry, before its fall."

"As well as Muggle-borns being sent into hiding, I regret to inform you that many Death Eaters have taken up a new sport of Muggle killings, a fact that many Muggles are blissfully ignorant of."

"Is there anything we can do to help this, Royal?"

"While we support all acts of bravery and wish to encourage anyone to help the Muggles, I wish to reinforce the sentiment of 'Safety First' in these dangerous times. Many lives can be saved though with simple measures that do not put yourselves in danger. One example is a protective charm over any known Muggle dwellings."

"Thanks, Royal, and now over to Romulus with 'Pals of Potter'."

Ginny's heart stopped, her mouth dried and her hand reached out to touch the radio. She closed her eyes and felt a moisture there. Right now she would give anything to know that he was alive, to get that conformation that he had not done something stupid and noble that had ended badly.

She needed to know that he was okay.

Ginny was only dully aware of a hand on her shoulder, probably Neville's, as she held her breath and prayed: please don't let him be hurt. Everything could be okay, everything could work out if he was still okay.

"Thank you, River," the next voice came.

"Professor Lupin," Seamus said.

"We know," a chorus of voices echoed.

"Romulus, do you maintain that Harry Potter is still alive?"

Ginny's throat felt tight.

It was almost impossible to breathe now.

"I do," Lupin spoke with firm conviction. "His death would have been widely celebrated by members of the new wizarding order. It is what they want and it would be a deadly blow to the morale of all those who support Harry. 'The Boy Who Lived' is our symbol of hope and his actions give us that hope to keep resisting."

Ginny felt herself release her breath and relief flooded through her body. Slowly her breath returned to normal. She let the tears fall as she gave in. Right now nothing mattered.

He was okay.

"And is there anything you would like to say to Harry and his supporters, Romulus."

"Keep fighting! We are all there in spirit with each other no matter how far apart we are and we will have our day. This new wizarding order will fall."

The radio show went on into the early hours of the morning and not a single Gryffindor NEWT student left the room. It was nearly three o'clock in the morning when an exhausted but more optimistic Ginny finally climbed into her four poster bed.

After the long night, Ginny was grateful for her free period on Thursday morning and took full advantage of it by having a well deserved lie-in, missing breakfast. In the rest of the time before break she quickly finished her Herbology essay. She was aware as she handed it in to Professor Sprout that it was far from her best work. Her mum would really not be impressed with the marks of her school report that would be owled home at Christmas but she didn't care and at least she had something to hand in.

Double Herbology went reasonably well, unless you counted the fact that the Venomous Tentacula tried to attack her and Sprout both lectured her and asked her to rewrite her essay on 'the correct way to juice a Snargaluff.' With her work really adding up, Ginny borrowed Demelza's E grade essay as she took her place at the back of the Dark Arts classroom. Building her normal protective wall of books, she hid behind them without listening to a word that the Death Eater said and keeping her temper for once well under control.

Once Carrow had set the chapter to copy out and had returned to his desk and his copy of the _Daily Prophet_, Ginny pulled Demelza's essay out. Using Demelza's essay and Luna's strange but helpful comments, she spent the double lesson rewriting the Snargaluff essay.

Not wanting to earn another group lecture about not eating when she got back to the common room late that night, after she got back from detention, Ginny went down to dinner with the other Gryffindors after her Dark Arts lesson. She forced down several mouthfuls of toad-in-the-hole and some pumpkin juice before handing her school bag to Demelza to take back up to the safety of the common room and well away from Snape's hands in her detention.

"Be careful," Demelza whispered giving her a hug as she got to her feet.

"Will be," Ginny turned round, to see Neville standing up.

"I'm walking you up there," Neville told her.

"Thank you," she muttered.

The two left the Great Hall together and walked up the seven flights of stairs in silence. The closer she got to the Headmaster's office the more nervous she got. The reality of what she was facing suddenly hit her straight on, and she pulled both hands round her stomach in a protective hold. Her breath had quickened and she was struggling to keep any oxygen in her lungs.

Neville's soft hand fell on her shoulder. "It'll be okay, Ginny."

She nodded mutely at his words.

"I promise you'll survive this." Ginny forced a grin at his words. "Weasleys are strong and facing this daily just goes to prove you're the strongest of the lot." Ginny's smile felt a little less forced. "You'll be fine, we're all going to wait up," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "and tomorrow in Muggle Studies I'm going to ask that bitch how much Muggle blood she has in her."

Ginny smiled at him and gave him a quick hug before attempting a joke. "Okay, into the snake's lair."

The Order traitor, the hook-nosed Professor was standing next to the large and ugly gargoyle. She followed the Death Eater up the stairs without comment, head down. As they got to the large circular office, Snape gestured to the small table that was set aside. Ginny glanced up once, looking at the portrait of Dumbledore before sitting at the table.

"I would like you to start by copying out the disciplinary record of Undesirable Number One."

She kept her head down as she wrote, determined not to look up and using all her willpower just to think about only what she was writing. Each time she saw Harry's name it was like a shot in her heart. She was missing him so much it hurt and she could not help but picture him each time she saw his name. She was aching in every part of her.

She could see his face so well, but would give anything to hear his voice, to touch his hand, to give in to her imagination to have him back next to her. To give in to the pull of her heart and dare to dream that they could return to what they once had. She thought about taking a potion, anything that would numb her pain.

She would give anything to know that he was okay.

The rest of the week faded without much note, apart from another lecture, this time from McGonagall and being informed that her parents would have to be contacted about her recent behaviour. She really was getting sick of these lectures, but worse than that feeling was that this lecture earned her another pang of guilt. Saturday was taken up by a long Quidditch practice and as Ginny watched her team take flight she was quietly very proud of them. They really had so much energy it was infectious and they seemed to be picking up the moves so quickly. In fact it was more a case now of just drilling them to perfect the moves.

The following day brought their next D.A. meeting. They choose to focus on spell practice while they had a rethink of the tactics that they were going to use against the Hogwarts Death Eaters. It was after the meeting that things really got going.

"So," Neville started as he sat down onto the cushions that they used for Stunning, gesturing to the two sixth-years to do the same as everyone else left the meeting. He looked directly at Ginny. "What else were you doing in Hogsmeade?"

"I was getting some stuff for the first match of the season," Ginny replied as she pulled her bag towards her.

"Won't you be playing in that match?" Neville looked confused.

"I was always under the impression that you enjoyed hanging off a broomstick while others throw those heavy balls around." Luna fixed her gaze on her, which was only slightly less unnerving than Luna's uncompromising truth. "You always appear to be experiencing so much pure joy when you're flying and I was under the impression that you wanted to pursue it when you finish Hogwarts."

"Yeah, I do, but there are more important things this year and with the whole school watching, I thought we could make a bit of a display and spread the message." Ginny grinned. "Get a bit of revenge."

"But you're the captain," Neville said, still looking concerned. "You're in the middle of the pitch with everyone there. It will be easy to watch you."

"That's why we use this." Ginny pulled out one of the disguised quills and handed it over to her friends. "This is Peruvian Instant Darkness powder. Snape will no doubt know a spell to clear it, but that's the point really; we want it cleared so that they can see the message. We just need the powder to stop them seeing us spread that message. Tap your wand on it and say 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' and you'll be able to use it."

"Oh, it will look so spectacular all in black," Luna mused," I always have liked black; straight colours are pure, natural."

"So that's Luna's and my job in the stands."

"Only after Natalie has the Snitch," Ginny insisted. "We're going to get that win first to give us something to celebrate."

The plans were discussed and by the time the trio left the Room of Requirement, Ginny was confident that they could pull off this first stunt. It was defiantly a lot better planned and less rushed and impetuous than her earlier acts of defiance against the new regime. This could not help but inspire confidence.

Knowing that she had a plan allowed her to keep her head down in her Dark Arts and Muggle Studies lessons. She allowed the words to wash over her as she used the double periods to write her Charms and Potions essay respectively. It was easier to do this when she knew that she could strike back against them. She was going to be smart this time, just like everyone had encouraged her to be.

Quidditch practice on Wednesday went even better than the one at the weekend. Maybe it was because she was more relaxed, having finally given in and stopped trying to fight the Hogwarts Death Eaters alone. While she had had to put up with some topics of conversation that she would have preferred not to, it was getting easier to tune things out. She had even managed to keep up with her lesson and achieve some acceptable marks.

She even found herself enjoying playing Quidditch, leaving her problems on the ground as she weaved in and out, scoring a dozen goals. Her Chasers even perfected the Porskoff Ploy and the Woollongong Shimmy by the end of her two-hour session, and Natalie, after a lot of one-on-one time with her captain, even managed to pull off a Wronski Feint just before the end of the practice.

There was real sense of reluctance when she landed her broom. She was going to miss this. She was giving up the one thing that took her mind off Harry, the one thing that she was really good at.

"Great session," Demelza said then quickly changed her tone after she looked at her face. "Are you okay?"

Ginny shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?" Demelza was displaying Luna-ish qualities for understanding the truth.

"I'm fine," she insisted again, "I just need to ask you a favour."

"Anything."

"Well," Ginny looked directly at her, "I'm pretty sure I'm going to be pulled off the team after the display at the Slytherin match."

Demelza sighed. "I thought we'd talked you out of this."

"You talked me out of working alone," Ginny smiled, "I'm not doing this on my own, and it's not me being rash either. We've planned it out."

"So you want my help?"

"Not with this, I'm really not sure we'll get away with it," she looked directly at her friend, "I just need someone to take my place here."

"I've got your back, Ginny," Demelza paused, "whatever you need."


	5. A Grand Display

Chapter Five: A Grand Display

Things started to calm down throughout October and into the start of November, as Ginny kept to her word and made less of a public show of opposing the Carrows and it seemed to work. Although both of the Death Eaters used her as an example in the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies lessons respectively, she actually went through a detention free period.

That was not to say that the backlash against the new regime's rule was not taking place. There was graffiti all over the castle and a portable swamp had been set off outside the Headmaster's office as an homage to the departed Weasley twins, and so far they had managed to vandalise the Dark Arts and Muggle Studies classrooms twice each without detection.

However, things started to heat up as the first Quidditch match of the school year drew closer. Both the Carrows and Snape were turning a blind eye to any attempts to sabotage the Gryffindor Quidditch team and even added to the problems. As well as the jinxes that were being performed daily by Slytherin students, each member of Ginny's team had been placed in detention at least once in the past week while the Quidditch pitch had been booked so often for Draco Malfoy's team it was almost impossible for them to practice.

So it was with more apprehension than normal that Ginny took her place at the back of the Dark Arts classroom next to Luna. As well as the fact that she was still the blood traitor that they hated and that they were trying to victimise, she was the Gryffindor Quidditch captain and would not be left in peace just a matter of days before the match.

She had a feeling that anything she did this week was going to be singled out for some form of punishment and at the same time, it was vital that she was present at the match if all their plans were going to work.

Ginny was more alert than normal as Amycus Carrow did the register and even paid attention to the lesson instead of pulling out one of her other essays that needed writing.

"This lesson we will be practicing the basics of the Cruciatus Curse," Carrow's wheezy voice was almost jumping with glee as he spoke to the class, "It is important that we master the basics this lesson so that I am not faced with a situation where there is no one available in detentions."

Carrow's grin turned into a leer as he stared straight at Ginny, she did not need to be a Legilimens to know what was coming next. The Death Eater had not proved himself to be very discreet in the past and since Snape had taken away his control of her punishments, the Dark Arts Professor was becoming more vindictive in lessons.

"Now we need someone who is willing to have the curse practiced on her." He was practically dancing as his eyes bore into her. "Miss Weasley, please place your wand on your desk and come to the front of the class."

She felt her eyes widen as she looked at Luna. She forced herself to push down her growing sense of fear to the pit of her stomach. While being a Pureblood may offer her certain levels of protection, she knew from past experience that that status did not prevent them from hurting her the best they could. She quickly ran through a series of ideas in her mind, none of which would work. Like every other time she'd been called out to the front of a Dark Arts lesson, she was struggling to think of a way out of this.

Ginny got to her feet and slowly walked between the desks to the front of the room. She felt the familiar feeling of everyone looking at her as she walked. She did not need to look round to know what the thoughts of the other sixth years were. There would be the same looks of fear, concern, hunger, excitement and curiosity. Any thoughts that she had of being the new Hogwarts celebrity had long been confirmed.

Amycus Carrow was almost bouncing with glee as she stood opposite him. His lopsided leer had grown, "So now I just need a volunteer to practice the curse."

Luna's hand floated into the air.

"Look how quickly friends can turn," Carrow wheezed as Luna skipped between the desks giving the impression that she was barely touching the floor. A dreamlike expression filled her face as she pulled her wand out from behind her ear. "Now, Miss Lovegood, point your wand directly at her and issue the curse."

Luna let her wand dance between her fingers before she pointed it. "Crucio," she sang twirling her wand aimlessly in the air before dropping it to her side.

"Try again," Carrow hissed as Luna ducked downwards to pick up her wand. The Death Eater leaned in close to Luna and spoke in a carrying whisper, "Keep your wand focused and feel the hate build up inside you, and then you pronounce the curse."

This time Luna kept her wand fixed but her voice lost none of its sing-song quality as she spoke, "Crucio."

It took all Ginny's willpower not to smile back at her friend. Luna was deliberately messing up this curse so she wasn't hurt and she was doing it in such a Luna-like way that Carrow had not worked out what she was doing. The Death Eater had seen her slightly eccentric behaviour and was now underestimating her.

Too many people underestimated Luna and they really shouldn't. She was a Ravenclaw for a reason as those who had gotten to know her knew only too well.

"Again," the Death Eater spat, losing the little patience that he had.

"Crucio," Luna sang again, to no affect.

"No, no, no," Carrow said. He looked like a two year old having a tantrum as he turned his own wand on Ginny. "Let me show you." And before she had a chance to do anything the Death Eater's wand was pointed at her chest. "Crucio!"

A pain beyond anything she had ever experienced before filled her body. Every one of her bones felt as if it were on fire. It was almost as if someone had sent jets of fire directly at her and her bones where actually burning.

Her head felt like it was going to split in two, her eyes began to roll in their sockets as her pupils dilated and tears traced their salty way down her face. Her mouth opened involuntarily as her tongue swelled up and her body writhed and twitched as her arms and legs bent in unusual positions.

As she heard the air around her being filled with her own screams, it was as if she was watching her body from above and the series of shrieks and yells she heard belonged to someone else.

She just wanted it all to end so that she could black out and die.

Then the pain seemed to halt as quickly as it had started when he lowered his wand. The pain was gone and her body hung limply. She struggled to find her knees as she sat up, doubting her ability to stand up, let alone move.

"Not nice, is it?" asked the Death Eater. "Is being a blood traitor worth all this?

She kept her mouth firmly closed. She was not going to give him any form of answer. That's what he wanted and she was not going to give him anything he wanted. She was not going to let him hear her beg. She was not going to waste her time and the small amount of strength she had left spitting out retorts; she refused to give him the satisfaction.

Carrow turned to face the class, "Now _that_ is how the Cruciatus curse is performed." He passed out spiders with a wave of his wand, "I would like each of you to practice on these."

The rest of her Dark Arts and Muggle Studies lessons were a blur and at quarter to one she made her way, still walking uneasily to the Great Hall. As soon as she entered the large dining hall, Professor McGonagall stood up. Any thoughts and hopes that she might look better than she felt quickly disappeared with the looks of her Head of House; she clearly must look at least equally as bad. The stern expression of Professor McGonagall was gone as she quickly crossed the hall to the Gryffindor table.

Professor McGonagall spent a couple of minutes questioning the other sixth years, her face growing from concerned to outraged as she heard the story of the morning's lessons. Without looking back at the staff table, the Head of Gryffindor quickly hissed instructions to Neville who had just arrived about taking Ginny up to the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey stared in shock as the pair of them arrived; it was clear from her expression she had not expected the Hogwarts students to look like this. After forcing Ginny into one of the beds, she turned her attention to her work, muttering under breath as she mixed up a potion for pain relief. Neville, who was soon joined by Luna, stayed at her side throughout the afternoon's lessons.

"Do you still want to hit back at the Quidditch match?" Neville asked in a whisper, when Madam Pomfrey finally sat down.

"More than ever," Ginny said equally quietly back, "I might as well deserve this."

Finally just ten minutes before her Quidditch practice was due to start, she was allowed out of the hospital wing, under promises to rest. She ran down to the pitch and was engulfed in hugs by her teammates as she met them. She spent a short practice floating on her broom out of the way, issuing several instructions at a very subdued session before heading straight up to the Gryffindor common room and the girls' staircase.

Ginny's battered, bruised and tired body fell into the four poster bed as soon as she reached the sixth year dormitory. There was only one place she wanted to be right now. She just wanted to close her eyes and forget what Hogwarts had become. She wanted to escape and think of nothing but those days back in the summer by the Hogwarts lake.

But her mind was buzzing with everything else and not letting her have one moment to remember those days. Instead of seeing those places that she and Harry had found at the end of her last school year, all she could see was the Dark Mark, the Death Eaters' masks and the wave of destruction and pain they caused.

It was hard to believe back then as they went back up she led Harry back up to the hospital wing after Dumbledore's death that things could get much worse. But looking at things now, those days were so easy and she would do anything to get back to them. At least they had not been isolated fighting against Death Eaters and the wizarding order back then.

Ginny opened her eyes in frustration.

Her mind was refusing to let her escape into the world of sleep where her unconscious self would dream of seeing Harry face to face. She longed to see the messy black hair that her hands seemed to belong in, and those emerald green eyes that sparkled like the sea. To see the smile he so rarely used, the one that would light up his whole face when he did. She yearned for the chance to fall into his strong arms again, arms that were packed with muscles from fighting this war but also so tender and protective.

She pulled out quill and parchment and started to write.

_Hey Harry,_

_So I'm sending you another letter, not that I could ever send these without anyone working out what's going on or without giving too much away. I'm sure if anyone knew that I was writing these, they would take me to St Mungo's and get my head tested. No sane people should be writing letters like this but I'm not sure I'm that sane anymore._

_How are you? You still keeping yourself safe? You better be, 'cause I swear if you come back dead, I'll kill you. _

_How's Ron? It feels strange to miss him, but it's just plain weird not to be fighting with him over something stupid. Remember how it bugged the hell out of me back in June, when he was sticking his nose in our business and it took a great deal of restraint not to hex him. Well, I'd give anything for that to be the case now. _

_What about Hermione? Have you two driven her insane yet? I tried to explain to her what it would be like just living with boys before you left but you can't really understand that until you experience it. I know though, that she would skin me alive if she saw some of my current NEWT marks but she needn't worry too much, I think Mum will do that when I go home._

_School is the same as ever, but I've told you that before. It's not easy but we are fighting and we're not going to give up. We are Dumbledore's Army; we are your army and we are going to keep giving you that support, in lessons and out._

_Other than that, I've got my first and last Quidditch match of the year tomorrow. It feels strange to be giving it up and I really know that I should not care about Quidditch but it's the one thing, other than the thought of you, that can still make me smile. But I mustn't think about any of that. This is the best way to send a message and strike a blow. Besides, Quidditch will be there next year after you have won this war._

_And that's what you need to do, Harry, win, and get your arse back here; come and take your Quidditch team back as the team misses you. I miss you. And it's not only them. I daren't say this allow, although judging by the looks I get, I think everyone already knows this. _

_I miss you._

_I miss you so much it hurts and I would do anything to guarantee that you come back. I would give anything to hear your voice, see your smile. I can't believe I wasted so much time not capturing your every movement._

_Don't do anything stupid and noble that gets you killed and I'll promise to behave myself too if that's what I have to do to get you back safely. _

_Ginny_

She went back to lessons the next morning and tried to act as normally as possible. She even managed to ease some of her teachers concerns as she applied herself in her lessons and nothing of any more consequence than Ritchie getting hit by a Leg- Locker Curse and Kiera being hit by a hair thickening charm on her eyebrows--both cast by Slytherin students, occurred.

With one further practice on the following Thursday night, Ginny was confident when she sat down for breakfast on Saturday morning. Without the normal nerves that she usually had while waiting for a Quidditch match she managed to have a reasonably large breakfast before leading her team down to the pitch to get changed.

"And welcome to the first match of the Hogwarts Quidditch season. Today's two teams being led out by their captains, the Slytherins being led out by the noble Draco Malfoy who will be playing as Seeker for his team. The Gryffindors are led out by the fiery Ginny Weasley, who will be playing as Chaser, today. She obviously does not want to take on Malfoy directly, with the Slytherin being so much more superior to her. Nor does she want to draw attention to her poor Seeker abilities compared to the Gryffindor's former captain."

Ginny heard the voice of Zacharias Smith as she led her team out onto the centre of the pitch, from the changing rooms below the stands. After his appalling performance last year she was amazed that he had been allowed to do the job of commentator again, but then she doubted that Professor McGonagall was allowed to pick the student for the job these days. Besides, slamming her every move in the last match was probably seen as a plus point by the Carrows.

But that hardly mattered today as she had more important things on her mind than the choice of Quidditch commentator.

She glanced up at the stands to see that they were packed and noisy. People had to let out their tension some way and Quidditch was still seen as a reasonably safe way to express emotion. She struggled to find Neville and Luna through the masses of red and gold, and green and sliver, finally making them out as they stood in the masses behind the Slytherin goalposts and as far away from the teachers as possible.

"Captains, please," Madam Hooch called.

Ginny crossed to the centre of the pitch, keeping her eyes fixed on Malfoy. She had barely had any contact with the Death Eater since his role in Dumbledore's murder. While she may have been targeted by the Carrows, Draco had not seen the need to come into direct contact with her. She kept her eyes fixed on Malfoy as she walked closer, she was positive the reason that Malfoy had not been trying to get at her was the fact that he already knew that the Carrows were doing the job and not that he'd had had a change of heart. After all, Neville had said that Malfoy, along with his two cronies, was trying to rub salt into the wounds of the other seventh years.

Malfoy grinned at her, Madam Hooch was still out of earshot. Here was his chance to aggravate her and possibly put her off her game.

"So the Weaslette has got the position finally, by default." Draco sniped. "Must be the highlight of your miserable year, what with one brother turned into a stain of society with those scars, your other brother set to be dead before the year's out and the boyfriend soon to join him."

Ginny ignored him, taking several deep breaths as she strapped her gloves on so tightly she almost cut off her circulation which forced her to pull them off and strap them on again. She could feel her temper rising inside her, it was almost as if any slight dig on Harry would do that now, but doubled with the insults to her family it was hard to keep her breath controlled and she could not afford to lose her rag now as much as Malfoy deserved it.

She had more important things to do than to hex Malfoy.

"Will you cry, Weaslette," Malfoy pressed on, "when his dead body is paraded for all to see in the Prophet?"

She took another deep breath before she glared back at him, "The only one who'll be crying today is you, Malfoy."

"Shake hands please," Madam Hooch instructed as she made her way over. As Ginny extended her hand, Malfoy took it and made a good attempt to crush it. "Let's have a nice fair match."

"Can we trust you to play fair?" Malfoy sneered.

"I'm on the right side here, the good guys so to speak," Ginny spat back, "if you can't trust us to play fair, then I think the concept of that type of game is pretty much screwed."

With her parting remark Ginny spun round so quickly that her plait flicked against Malfoy's face. She strode back to her team and forced the smile that she offered them. She was going to make sure that they won this, if only as another slam against the Slytherins. Just because they were all Death Eaters' children didn't mean that they would win at everything.

Ginny returned to her teammates. This was it, her last act as captain and they were all looking at her so expectantly. This was where she had to give them those words to inspire them. She had always underestimated this part of the position, barely listening to some of Angelina's long winded team talks, and finding other things than Harry's words to be occupied with when Harry gave the talks, but now, standing here, she realised obviously how important it was.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say here; guess I'm not going to make the world's best captain and should stick to scoring goals." She smiled. "But I do know the reason I'm standing here making a mess of this speech. I'm here because other people would not let others come back. I'm here because of the lies that have been spread and the rules that have been passed but that doesn't stop us playing, not until it's taken away from us like it has been from them."

She drew breath, amazed that they were still listening to her. "So, let's do this for Ron, Harry, Dean and everyone else who was prevented from coming back." Her confidence was growing, "Let's show these Slytherin scum that it doesn't matter who your parents are or what connections you have. If we can do that with Quidditch, let's hit them there. We are the more skilful, the better and the more just team here. Let's win this!"

Demelza grinned as she placed her hand in the centre of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and others piled their hands on top of it. "On the count of three, Potter!"

Ginny smiled at her friend as she led the count, "One, Two, Three."

"POTTER!"

The cry echoed up and into the stands where the noise grew. It had to be more than just the Gryffindors crying out Harry's name. Ginny smiled, the support was there. She just wished that she could let Harry know that it was there because if it gave her a warm feeling then it would do wonders for him. It just helped to show that they were not fighting this alone and she guessed it was just safer to show that support in numbers. The Carrows could not target this many people if they acted as a big group. Maybe that would be the key to their success this year.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle and Ginny along with the thirteen other players kicked off from the ground. She felt the familiar buzz and adrenaline rush as the wind hit her face and her robes billowed in the air. Before sinking to her broom to chase the Quaffle at speed, she allowed herself a couple of seconds to savour the noise.

"OLÉ, OLÉ, OLÉ, OLÉ, WEASLEY, WEASLEY!"

"And the Quaffle is up in the air, and that's Weasley who is first to it. Weasley, riding on a broom that dates back to the time of Slytherin, is now taking on their Chasers and she's closing in on the goals."

Ducking and weaving away from two Slytherin Chasers, she made a quick one-two pass with Demelza. Feinting a shot to the right hand hoop, she coolly sent the Quaffle through the left hand one.

Her fist punched the air in celebration as she barked out a set of instructions to her team and the noise in the crowd grew. The Slytherin Keeper, Kevin Wilson threw out the Quaffle to one of the Chasers, diving straight in for the tackle Ginny won the ball. Avoiding a well aimed Bludger by just inches, she looked up and assessed the current formations. Carefully she selected a pass to Kiera who sped directly into the Slytherin Chasers before playing a careful back pass to Demelza. Ginny directly flew underneath Demelza, as the Quaffle dropped straight into her hands, this time aiming for the middle hoop.

The Gryffindor crowd went wild and left Smith with little to criticise from the commentator's box. The score was 90 – 20 to Gryffindor, before he started his next attack.

"While Weasley, who is on the Quaffle now, may have some limited Quidditch talent, there are other things that she is lacking. And do not be mistaken by that calm exterior as she scores again--she has quite a temper. In fact, considering the number of violent outbursts she's been involved in the past, I'm amazed that she's still allowed to play, let alone captain the Gryffindor team. I guess it's just a sympathy vote, considering her brother is dying, not that anyone would mourn the death of a Weasley."

Ginny paused midair to stare at the seventh year Hufflepuff and former D.A. member, taking her full attention off the game. She could not believe that he had been allowed to say that, let alone had the nerve to. If Smith wanted to see her temper rise, he was pulling the right strings to earn him another spark of it following a Gryffindor Slytherin match. She was half tempted to crash into him right now, and claim that it was another accident as she forgot to break but he could wait, she wasn't going to waste her energy on it right now.

She was jolted back into action as she was hit squarely in the stomach by a Bludger hit by Vincent Crabbe. Wincing and clutching her stomach, both hands off her broom briefly, she started to plummet. There were only her legs keeping her on her broom as she fell over twenty feet at an ever increasing speed.

Heading in a nosedive to the ground, she managed to regain the handle of her broom mere meters from the ground. Pulling herself up, she soared straight upwards as if she had completed the perfect Wronski Feint to a mass of cheers and boos from the crowd.

"Let's finish this!" Ginny called at the top of her voice as she rejoined her teammates.

With the score of 160 versus 40 to the Gryffindors, three things happened in very quick succession. Natalie darted towards the base of the Gryffindor goals beating Malfoy to the Snitch, the whole stadium plunged into darkness and Ginny dropped the Quaffle throwing the first of the fireworks that Fred and George had given her into the air.

The dark sky was lit up with a variety of colours that formed the words – 'Support Harry Potter' 'Dumbledore's Army Reformed' 'Voldemort has taken over the Ministry' 'Hogwarts is in the hands of Death Eaters' and even some old 'The Ministry are Morons' slogans. Amidst all the bangs, shrieks, pops, and whees, Ginny let off some self-spelling sparklers that wrote in red and gold flashing writing: 'Snape murdered Dumbledore' in red and then changing into gold to say 'Coward'.

Ginny sat back on her broom midair and watched. She tried to take in all the colours, noise and flashes of the fireworks. The sky looked amazing, Fred and George had outdone themselves on this set of fireworks but more important than that, the public message had worked. Everyone at school could see what they thought of Harry, Snape and the current regime at Hogwarts.

Just as quickly as the sky had darkened the light returned and the fireworks had gone. Ginny glanced over to the stands and it was easy to see Snape amongst the teachers, his fury burnt through the stadium.

Ginny felt his gaze on her as she dived to the ground. She had to get out of there quickly before that fury exploded on her. She quickly pulled her broom into her hands and got ready to dart to the changing room before she froze instantly at the anger that was rising from the Hogwarts Headmaster.

Snape's voice echoed around the stadium, "WEASLEY, my office, NOW!"


	6. Detention in the Dungeons

Chapter Six: Detention in the Dungeons

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

"You have no proof, Severus!" the Head of Gryffindor all but shouted.

Minerva McGonagall had thrown her Gryffindor scarf to the ground as she left the stands following Snape's words at the match. As soon as Ginny had landed her broomstick, she had felt Amycus Carrow take her wrist, seen Alecto Carrow take her broom and watched as her Head of House matched them step for step. Despite the look of disappoint that was clear on McGonagall's face, the fact that she was there gave her that little support that she needed. She was sure that she was on the verge of another lecture from the stern and serious professor later, but that was in the future.

Ginny stood in the centre of the Headmaster's Office, right at the centre of attention, opposite the large oak desk and the sword of Gryffindor. All the portraits were looking at her, she could even feel Dumbledore's bright blue eyes penetrating her. She slowly massaged her wrist, as she took another look round the room and slowly weighed the situation.

Things were bad, yes, but not as bad as they could have been. What she wanted was to be in a position where she could deny all knowledge of things that had happened on the pitch. That part of the plan had gone reasonably well. And she was more than positive that if she chose to deny all knowledge, Professor McGonagall would support her words.

"No proof at all," Professor McGonagall continued.

"I have all the proof I need, Minerva," Snape hissed. "This girl has been breaking rules since the day that she arrived at this school."

"A month!" Professor McGonagall's voice had risen several octaves. "It has been a month since you can prove that she has done anything wrong. How can you suspect her now without any evidence?"

Snape let out a low laugh. "Who else would have access to those fireworks?"

"Her brothers own a very popular shop." Ginny felt herself being pushed back towards the walls by her Head of House as she spoke. "Do you not think it is at all possible that someone else could have bought them?"

"Can you name these other students?" Snape sneered. "I'm sure I could find time to personally investigate the matter. And at the same time, we could see if that stupid teenage group has actually reformed as we believe it has." Snape's sneer grew into a smile. "Yes, that would be rather useful, actually. I'll just get the Veritaserum for Miss Weasley."

"No need. It was me, just me," Ginny said with a small shrug as she stepped back forward. She must not take that potion, whatever the cost. Snape would have a field day with all the knowledge she could give him. "I thought it was time people knew what was going on."

There was no way that she was going to let anyone else take the blame here. Other people may have been involved, but this had been all her idea and she was not going to let anyone else pay for it. If it meant another couple of detentions, she could handle it. Hell, if it meant suffering from the Cruciatus Curse, she would deal. Not Neville nor Luna nor anyone else was going to suffer for her.

"I believe that that concludes the matter," Snape grinned.

"So do I get to punish her?" Amycus Carrow smiled, sometimes he was just like an overgrown schoolboy as he was literally bouncing up and down with excitement over the use of torturing a teenage girl.

"No, no," Snape smiled, as a shiver ran down Ginny's spine, "I believe that that pleasure is all mine." He paused for a moment. "We will start off with a life Quidditch ban."

"What?" Both the Death Eater and Ginny spat out.

McGonagall glared at Ginny, urging her not to speak. This was not really that bad a punishment and she should really not let her shock get the better of her before Snape rethought his decision and came up with something else. Recognising her Head of House, Ginny dropped her gaze and adapted an expression that was suitably ashamed and regretful.

"Alecto, it's all about reading their minds and then crushing their hopes." He was smiling. "Have you read this girl's file? Read her mind?" That vile smile had grown as he turned to look at his fellow Voldemort cronies. "She harbours the deluded dream that she is good enough to make it as a professional Quidditch player." That horrid laugh echoed round the room as Ginny looked back up at the Hogwarts Head Teacher. Just a few months ago, that punishment would have really hit her where it hurt and it was going to be hard watching the matches but it really was the least she had to expect now. "How are the Quidditch scouts to see her to give her a career if she is banned from playing at school?"

"You make a good point," Alecto was forced to agree as she joined in laughing.

"And I think we will follow up the ban with detention in dungeon seven," his dark eyes narrowed down onto her and she dropped her gaze, "starting next Saturday at 9 o'clock in the morning and there will be no need to bring your wand."

"For how long?" Ginny asked tentatively, although she was not sure that she really wanted the answer to that question. It might be easier to face if she could kid herself that she was not going to be in there or at the mercy of cruel Death Eaters for long.

Snape laughed again, a laugh that was echoed by both of the Carrows. "Until we say you are free to go, Miss Weasley." His smile grew. "Don't worry though, Miss Weasley. I will ensure that you are able to attend your Monday morning lessons; we would not want you missing those."

"Well," Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, "if that is all, I will accompany Miss Weasley back to her common room. I would not like to give the possibility of adding to that punishment and I trust that my reassurance that she went straight back there and has not been involved in anything else will be good enough."

"Certainly, Minerva," Snape spoke curtly, "as soon as she gives me her broom, she is free to go."

A pang hit her as she held out her broomstick. Her first ever broomstick and not one that had been handed down through at least three of her brothers first and was already more than a little battered. It may not be the newest broom in the world and she knew it hardly mattered now but her dad had worked so hard to surprise her with the Cleansweep in an attempt to cheer her up on her birthday. All she could do now was to hope that Snape didn't throw it into the Whomping Willow. It pained her to know that she was causing her family so much grief now.

How was she ever going to explain this? Her mum had enough to deal with over Ron, Percy and all those secretive Order missions that put her family in daily danger. She should be the one that was relatively safe.

Guilt swept through her, she was already dreading the owl she would be getting. Each owl that had arrived had been at pains to tell her to behave and after her mother's last one, she had replied saying that she would.

"Miss Weasley," she felt Professor McGonagall's hand on her shoulder blade as she guided her out of the room.

Instead of walking the familiar path to Gryffindor Tower, with the lightest touch, the Order of the Phoenix member led her down a marble staircase to the first floor. The two women walked slowly and in silence until they reached the wooden door and the Head of Gryffindor let them into the office. Professor McGonagall nodded to one of the seats as she took the one on the other side of the desk.

Glancing round the room, she could see the Quidditch pitch out of one of the windows. She turned her attention away from it and towards the Transfiguration professor. She could not bear to look at her last hope, her last release from everything at Hogwarts now that it was firmly gone. She really hadn't thought this through now not only had she a timetable from hell, being at the mercy of Death Eaters but there was no Hogsmeade or Quidditch to stop her from going crazy.

She stepped backwards almost as soon as she let that thought cross her mind. No matter how much trouble she was in and as hard as her year was going to be, she was safe. Unlike the rest of her family, her life was not at risk and she was not fighting Death Eaters in open warfare. Unlike Harry or Hermione, she did not have a huge wanted sign hanging over her head.

What she had done had unnerved Snape. His calling of just her surname at the match had done that and helped show the Hogwarts Death Eaters that there was still resistance out there. So she really needed to get a grip now and not care about her broomstick. After all, if this war wasn't won, Quidditch ban or not it was very doubtful that she would be permitted to join the British and Irish league; her background and blood traitor status would see to that. Already, players had been removed from squads for lesser things under this new regime than for being a blood traitor.

"Miss Weasley?"

Ginny looked up as the former Hogwarts deputy head teacher, drew her out of her thoughts. "Yes, Professor?"

"You do realise that they had no evidence against you." McGonagall studied her face. "And I have already given you a warning over both your conduct and their punishments. What were you thinking, giving them further reasons to single you out?"

"How could I not? I was involved; they would have found that out and much more with the Veritaserum." Ginny looked directly at her. "I'm not going to make people suffer for me, so I guess I'll take anything they throw." She smiled softly. "And as you have already said before, I know too much; anything else is too big a risk."

"Very true." Professor McGonagall nodded and Ginny was almost positive that she heard a note of pride in her Head of House's voice. "That's very noble of you."

Ginny offered her a small shrug. "I'm just playing my role."

"Indeed," McGonagall spoke in a resigned tone, and Ginny was sure that her Head of House knew that she was fighting a losing battle asking her students not to get involved. But she lost that tone almost straight away as soon as the two pairs of eyes interlocked. "Next time, please avoid detection and do not openly admit to causing the breaking school rules. I can not defend you when you put yourself in this position." She paused briefly which added weight to the importance of her words. "Calm things down."

Professor McGonagall waited briefly for a reply, "Miss Weasley?"

"I will."

"Good," Professor McGonagall said as she briefly turned her back on her student and reached for some floo powder. "This fire is still safe _–_ well, as safe as you can get in the country at the moment." She handed over the Floo powder. "You should contact your parents before they hear the rumours and let them know that you aren't hurt."

She crouched down to the empty fire gate with a fistful of powder in her hand. Ginny dropped the powder onto the logs stacked neatly beneath her and at once they exploded into green flames.

"The Burrow."

Her knees stuck firmly to the tough deep red carpet of the Head of Gryffindor's office, but her head was spinning, hurtling through the emerald green fire and into a variety of colours before it stopped abruptly. There she was staring out of the fireplace in the kitchen of the one place she was dying to be.

She briefly let the thought of placing her whole body in the fire and returning home before rediscovering her resolve as she called out, "Mum? Dad? Anyone?"

"Ginny!" Molly's voice came back frantically. "It's so good to see you. What are you doing here? What's happened now? Where are you? How are you?" Her mother's questions tumbled out in a rush.

"I'm okay." She tried to sound calm but her Mum did not look convinced as her normal warm laugh lines had worry etched into them, "I swear, Mum, I'm okay."

Molly looked at her shrewdly; she had seen that expression before. It was the same one that her mother used when she was trying to work out which of her children was responsible for whatever trouble had been caused. "Where are you?"

"Professor McGonagall's office."

"Why are you there?" Her mother's expression had barely changed except the worry lines may have increased. Professor McGonagall would hardly let her risk using the fire for just a social call. "What's happened?"

"Nothing," Ginny spoke quickly so her mum could not interrupt, "It's nothing important, but since I can't write openly, I just wanted to tell you so you don't worry over anything when you get the official letter from school." Molly was frowning as Ginny pressed on with her words. "I swear, Mum, honestly I'm okay. Got a life Quidditch ban, but other than that I'm good."

"How did that happen? What did you do? What on earth made you do something to let those professors single you out?" Her mother fired worried and frantic questions, before she looked straight into her brown eyes. "I thought you had promised to be more careful."

"I will be, I swear." Guilt was rising again, which was, no doubt, part of Professor McGonagall's plan to shame her into behaving and keeping a low profile by letting her know what worry it was causing. "Anyway, I'm okay, and I just wanted you to know that before I go back to the tower since I've no idea when I'll be able to owl again. Love you, Mum, and I'm sure Professor McGonagall will talk to you soon."

"I love you, Ginny," she paused and Ginny was almost positive that she could see tears sparkling in her mother's warm brown eyes, "and please, I'm saying this one last time, be careful."

"Love you too, Mum," she said, unwilling to commit to the rest.

"Right, Miss Weasley," McGonagall said as soon as she pulled her head out of the fire, "let's take you up to the common room. There is no point taking any more risks today."

The evening was very quiet after Ginny had explained the events of the day to the older Gryffindors and the rest of her Quidditch team. She had briefly explained that while she would do what she could to help out, Demelza would be taking over the team. The Quidditch conversation had not lasted long though and it had quickly been followed with the more serious conversations as Neville called a D.A. meeting for the next night.

Once there were replies from all the members of Dumbledore's Army via the coins, Ginny made her excuses and headed straight up for her dormitory. Quickly and quietly, she slipped into the four poster bed. Finally lying in her bed, she let herself relax, closing her eyes and letting her act drop. Maybe it was the fact that she was completely drawn physically and emotionally but the darkness let her be herself.

As she lay looking up into the darkness, she could feel soft tears fall down her hot cheeks. Here she was fighting, doing what she could and suffering for it, and yet it did not feel like enough. Harry was still gone, she was still cut off from her family and despite the support of everyone in that common room she had never felt more alone. The worst thing was that she was never going to get full support and love again. She was deluding herself if she thought that all of her family and Harry and Hermione were going to come out the other side of this whole; life wasn't that good.

Using her arm to roughly wipe her eyes, she took a couple of long deep breaths as she regained her composure.

She could do this.

Night faded into day and after lying awake in self pity mode into the early hours, she even managed a bit of sleep with a Sunday morning lie-in. The rest of the day disappeared as she waited to go back to the Room of Requirement.

Before the meeting started, Ginny, Neville and Luna sat in the centre of the room as they discussed plans for the meeting.

"I've been thinking," Neville started, "we need to stop playing at this now. We need to get serious. We need to beat them at their own game and not take any risks unless they are worth it." Ginny stared at him, more than a little incredulous, "Come on, Ginny, how much more do you think you can take of this?"

"All that I need to," she replied as she hugged her knees in towards her chest, hoping that would provide some kind of support.

"I know that," Neville said with a smile, "where will you be when we _– _when Harry really needs you and they have all but destroyed you? This detention really has to be the last."

Ginny forced a smile. "Who've you been talking to? Mum or McGonagall?"

"I believe it merits careful consideration on the use of the Cruciatus Curse within lessons," Luna spoke in a peaceful tone as she used her wand to curl her hair, "I think that we should administer the curse on each other."

"What?" Ginny spat, but Neville looked curious.

"The Cruciatus Curse is essentially about intent and the desire to inflict pain," Luna's voice sang with her words, "therefore surely it is more prudent for friends to perform the curse on each other rather than allow others to perform that task."

"Makes sense," Neville agreed.

The meeting involved drawing up a plan of action. The new priority was not going to be making stands and acts of bravery that just made a pointless bash at the Death Eaters. They would only make those statements if there was absolutely no way that it could get traced back to them. Instead they were going to focus on things that made a direct impact on the war effort, in particular learning to fight and protecting the younger students.

Breakfast the next day brought the new plans into action and the next letter from home this time arrived with Bill's tawny owl, Adwin. She fed the young owl some scraps of her breakfast as she pulled the piece of parchment off his leg.

_Hi Ginny,_

_I'm writing for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to check that you are okay – it's not like you can be replaced if anything happens. Second, we still want to make sure that you get lots of regular letters to show how much we all care for our little spitfire and Mum's feeling a bit under the weather. I think everything is really beginning to take its toll._

_Not that that will matter if she gets another owl. I'm pretty sure the howlers will come out then. Not that you'd be the first Weasley to get one sent to school and some of us think it may be about time. Why should we have the embarrassment in front of the entire school but Mum's little girl escape? All seriousness, though, you are going to get a reception similar to that of the Ton-Tongue Toffee, so you might want a bit of a rethink._

_How are your NEWTs going? _

_I was surprised to hear that you were struggling with them a bit. You had some pretty impressive marks before so here was I thinking you'd breeze through this year. I'm sure you can pull them up with a bit more help or a bit of extra time – maybe fewer detentions will actually let you have some time to study. I know none of us were perfect at school, well apart from maybe Percy, but we did leave some time to get some work done. If things get really bad, though, we are all here to help. Let me know if you want me to arrange for some of our old notes to be sent up to you. After all, we can't have you flunking out._

_We know if you put your mind to it you can do us proud._

_Things here are going okay. Fleur is really good and sends her love, married life is very enjoyable. We have the whole house finally set up and the garden is in order. Work is going okay. Charlie is good, fallen in love with a new baby Romanian Longhorn – but that's Charlie for you – he'll love anything that shoots fire. Nothing like Weasleys for attracting trouble, eh? Business is still booming with Fred and George, we hardly see them with all the projects they have taken on but at least they have Lee Jordan helping them. And everything is still the same with Ron._

_We all love you, miss you and can't wait to see you at Christmas. _

_Take care of yourself._

_Love,  
_

_Bill_

Ginny folded the letter away, pleased for once she was not directly going against her family's wishes after the discussion at the D.A. meeting last night. And their new policies were put into action almost straight away as Ritchie was asked to perform the Cruciatus Curse on his girlfriend as Carrow looked to punish all of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Both Ritchie and Demelza held firm allowing the rest of the day to pass without too much incident.

Ginny and the rest of Dumbledore's Army managed to keep a low profile. Monday got lost into Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then Friday. As Ginny left Transfiguration on Friday at the end of a double, she even earned a small smile from Professor McGonagall and Ginny herself had to admit that she was quietly proud of herself. If needs must she could control her temper and that was just what she had done.

Saturday morning brought an early start and the biggest breakfast that she had eaten in months. A breakfast that seemed to keep growing because as soon as she had eaten something Neville added another item to her full English breakfast, stacking up her plate. She didn't protest since she had no idea how long Snape was going to keep her in that dungeon. Snape had obviously held her detention back six days for a reason: either it was to build a sense of fear in her or because he was going to need a whole weekend for her detention.

With more than a little sense of apprehension, she tucked a flask of water into her robes and left the Great Hall at quarter to nine to head down to the dungeons. The tall greasy haired professor was waiting for her as she reached the dungeons. She held her head up high as she walked towards him. If the delay had been to attempt to create fear in her, she was not going to show any.

Snape opened the door. "In you go, Miss Weasley."

Ginny walked in and felt her heart thud as the door slammed shut and locked behind her. She waited, standing against the door, until she heard the footsteps walk away. Slowly she sat down, resting her back against the wall as she looked round at her surroundings. It was dark, yes, but it was not uncomfortable and she was alone; there were no Hogwarts Death Eaters around here.

She waited, a good ten minutes, it could have been longer, in the darkness it was hard to tell, before she moved again, waiting for footsteps to return. After she was reasonably confident that no Death Eaters were returning to ambush her in the dark, she reached her arms out. This was clearly one of the smaller dungeons. If she wanted to she could stretch her hands out and reach all four of the walls. The stone floor was cold but it appeared to be clean. Having her wand with her and not in her dorm room to cast a warming spell would have been nice but even that really wasn't so bad. Slowly and carefully she got to her feet using the wall as a guide; she felt her way up the walls. Her heart stopped for a moment when she felt the icy heavy metal of chains attached to the wall. Ignoring them, she ran her hands further along the wall, reaching the grate in the wooden doorway that offered the only light.

This really wasn't too bad in here as detentions seemed to be going now. All she had to do would be to adjust to the stillness and the silence but that would not be as easy as it could be for many others as Snape probably knew after studying the working and the fears of her mind.

Ginny did not do well with silence. She had never really encountered silence, growing up at The Burrow, where noise exploded from every crevice in the walls. Silence gave her time to think and thinking in the lower regions of the Hogwarts school was not going to be a good idea. A chill ran down her spine and she could feel her body shaking as she sank back down to the floor.

She must not let those thoughts even enter her mind. Whenever the name Tom Riddle entered her mind she would turn into a nervous wreck and still, years after the worst moments of her life, she could take hours to recover if she allowed herself to think about the dark parts of the school. With everything else going on in that mess of a mind of hers and with all her emotions still raw she couldn't bear this. She was not sure that she could fight off those true comments that were buried deep down inside on how weak, stupid and useless she was and how she was going to be the one who helped to destroy Harry for the Dark Lord.

No she could allow herself to think like that.

She had to do things that would help Harry, help him get what he needed.

Ginny rested her back against the wall as she let herself think of Harry. Closing her eyes she saw his face; she let herself think back to those happier times, even letting herself remember kissing him. Remembering the passion, of feeling his hands in her hair, the way her heart had pounded and the shivers that had run down her spine.

Surely with time down here she could think of something useful, something that might help her and Harry. Like Harry had helped her last time she was in the lower reaches of the school and then it hit her. It was just so obvious that she could have kicked herself that she hadn't thought of it before. Maybe it was now that she just had time to think.

Dumbledore had wanted Harry to have the sword of Gryffindor.

The sword that was currently in Snape's office.

And if she knew how to do one thing, it was how to liberate something she wanted out of a locked room. After all, she had been doing that since she was six. She could get the sword to Harry.


	7. Gryffindor's Sword

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

Chapter Seven: Gryffindor's Sword

Ginny's eyelids felt heavy and her stomach was begging for any type of food. She couldn't be sure, with no way of telling the time for sure, but it had to be the early hours of the morning and it would be easy just to drift off to sleep for a couple of hours. She had never felt more exhausted, but something in her mind was keeping her awake, as if her body did not dare to let herself fall asleep, not even for a second. She shifted her body so she got a new ache in her back; she did not want to let her guard down, she was not going to let any Death Eater come and hurt her, regardless of what state she was in.

Come to think of it, why had they not been back in here to come and see her again? She thanked Merlin that nothing else had happened to her, but she was becoming more and more wary as the time passed. Why had they just shut her in here and left her alone? That really still didn't seem as bad a punishment as she had been expecting even with the silence, the thoughts and memories of the lower quarters of Hogwarts school brought on that made every part of her shiver, not to count lack of any food or water.

She opened the flask and let the last drops of water from the flask run down her neck. Next time, she was going to have to be much more careful with the limited water she could have smuggled in. The cool water hit her empty stomach; rattling around there causing it to rumble. One thing that her parents had made sure of was that none of them ever went without food, and even with her less than healthy appetite since she had returned to Hogwarts, she had never found herself feeling this hungry. There was no doubt that her mother would throw a fit if she saw her right now, and she was pretty sure that right now she wouldn't mind the onset of mollycoddling and forced feeding that would happen had her mother seen her.

A chill ran down her spine as her stomach growled in protest again. It really was getting very cold in here, and unlike when she was in Gryffindor tower, she had no fire to protect against the cold temperature of the castle in November. She adjusted her cloak and pulled her knees closer to her, holding them in tight. Not only was it helping keep her just that little bit warmer but now it was providing a bit of extra support, before she could let those self-pitying thoughts of earlier and of Tom Riddle enter her mind.

She forced herself to focus again. She needed to think of something useful, something helpful like Neville and Luna had been talking about and something that would prevent her from dwelling on the past and on what had happened and she now needed to do what was best; to react to it instead of waiting for other things to change. She had always known that she had been built for action: she had never had the patience to sit around and wait for things to happen. Patience was a much overrated virtue in her book. Whether it be at home or at school she needed to be in the heat of the action and that's exactly what Hogwarts was calling for at the moment. She turned her mind back to the thoughts of the night of Harry's birthday and Gryffindor's sword. After hours with nothing to else to do, she already had a plot brewing in her mind and without interruptions or being able to give into her impatient nature, the plan was more sound than any of her others this year and she had the perfect place to test out her breaking and entering skills.

Ginny racked her mind. She still had plenty of Fred and George's products left to help her out: spare bits of parchment were still disguised in her trunk, with the real products of Decoy Detonators, Extendable Ears, fireworks, shield hats, Instant Darkness Powder, Portable Swamps and Skiving Snackboxes among others hidden in her trunk. Her twin brothers had been more than generous and this time the products would be put to good use and not wasted on a gesture.

The plan was almost fully formed in her mind as the room started to warm again after what had to be a good ten hours. She just needed to run all her ideas past Neville and Luna and maybe even some others before she acted. After all, her ideas while in this pit may not be able to be counted as sane.

Just as her eyes were finally starting to close and she was finally giving in to the overdue temptation of sleep, the dungeon door finally opened. She forced herself to focus and look upwards to see the Hogwarts Headmaster looking at her.

"You are free to go, Miss Weasley," Snape smiled at her before turning to walk away.

Slowly and ever so slightly clumsily she got to her feet using the wall for support. She didn't feel good right now. Taking her time she left the dungeons and took much longer than normal to climb the further seven flights of stairs. Her mouth was so dry that she was not sure that she would be able to speak and silently prayed that the Fat Lady would take pity on her as her sanity came into sight finally. She managed to choke out the password to the Fat Lady as she reached her common room.

Ginny almost fell over the threshold to her house as arms quickly pulled her in. Her eyes were barely open as she was pulled over to one of the large chairs by the fire, finally letting her eyes close as she reached one of the large cushy chairs.

She was in a complete daze as questions were fired at her only picking up a few familiar voices.

"Ginny?" She was sure that was Neville's voice, "Are you okay?"

She could feel her head nodding with or without her consent; she wasn't sure right now. "Tired…, hungry…," she blinked, forcing her eyes open. "What times is it?"

"Nine o'clock, Sunday evening." Neville's brown eyes looked more worried than she had ever seen them before and she had seen plenty of worry in those brown eyes this year, especially after the trip to Hogsmeade. If he was looking like that now, she really must look as awful as she felt after having been away from the Gryffindor quarters for hours. "What happened down there?"

"Nothing." She offered them a weak shrug, trying to dismiss all of their worries but from the looks in the eyes of her fellow Gryffindors, she hadn't convinced them at all. She tried again, this time hoping her words would reassure them. "Just locked in a dungeon, that's all." Her stomach turned again and gave in to the basic need that could be satisfied. "Has anyone got any food?"

"We brought up some from dinner--smuggled it out," Seamus told her, smiling as he tapped his wand over a piece of parchment revealing a plate from the Hogwarts kitchen. His smile grew to a grin as he pushed over a plate of sausage, mash and onion gravy, "for when you came back."

"Let me warm that up," Lavender said quickly casting a spell over the food, "you should eat it all and then we'll get you up to bed. You look like you need a good sleep." Ron's old girlfriend studied her face, and Ginny was slightly surprised to see that worry etched across Lavender's face. She didn't think the older girl would be that concerned about her especially after Ron's actions towards her early that year. "Did you sleep at all?"

"Couldn't." She said quickly taking a huge mouthful of sausages and mashed potato, burning her tongue. She glanced up at them briefly before looking back down at her food. She did not want her friends to know how defeated she felt. "There's drink too, right?"

She took another large mouthful of food and tried to clear her head a little. She really didn't care that all the sixth and seventh years were looking at her as she took the pumpkin juice that Parvati pushed at her. There had been plenty of people looking at her. It didn't matter whether those people where friendly or not. She let the juice wash through her and the food start to fill her stomach before her eyes started to fall asleep again. She would give anything to give in to the temptation of sleep right now and it didn't really matter where she slept either.

"Let's get you to bed." Demelza said getting to her feet and supporting her friend.

"Snape made it clear," Ginny forced out, "I can't miss tomorrow."

"We won't let you," Demelza reassured her as they reached the stairs.

Somehow, she made her way to her bed and fell asleep without any thought. Exhaustion had taken over her mind as well as her body and it was only after her well overdue shower the next morning that she started to feel remotely human again and her hair felt less like a series of rats' tails.

She did make it to breakfast and to her Monday lessons as well as using her coin to call a D.A. meeting for that evening. She even managed to keep her temper under control and her head down in her two Death Eater led lessons. She even managed not to scoff at Slughorn's words in Potions. She worked as if she was in a daze. It was much easier to handle the lessons in that level of daze if she didn't have to think about the words that were being spoken. She only briefly stepped out of her self imposed daze to ask Slughorn about the effectiveness and time span of appearance changing potions on the pretence of asking about her Polyjuice potion essay.

In the D.A. meeting they drew up plans of the school and the corridors and rooms that they wanted to highlight with acts of that would earn the wrath of the Hogwarts Death Eaters. They spent the evening plotting how to target the rooms while creating appropriate diversions that would keep the Death Eaters entertained, starting with Neville and Seamus using one of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes Portable Swamps in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom while Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones used permanent markers on the walls by the greenhouses and Michael Corner, Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein were to set off fireworks on the seventh floor all in the seventh years free period tomorrow to cause maximum disruption and hopefully enough distractions that none of them could be caught. After all, even Death Eaters couldn't be in more than one place at a time.

As the meeting ended Neville exchanged a couple of glances and a long goodbye with Hannah Abbott. Their sweet exchange drew the attention of many of the D.A. members and Ginny even shot Demelza a smile before she went over to join Luna at the large cushions used for stunning. After several long minutes at the door, Neville came and joined the two sixth years for more post meeting tactics discussions.

Ginny grinned as Neville reached for one of the large cushions, "So Neville," her grin grew, if anyone deserved some happiness at Hogwarts at the moment it was Neville and from the familiar look in his eyes it looked like that may just be in the cards. "Hannah Abbot?"

"I was just saying goodbye." Neville was smiling as his face turned briefly red and he fidgeted with the end of a quill before quickly changing the subject. "But enough about that, there's much more important things that we need to talk about," he said in a more sober tone, looking directly at Ginny. "What really happened in the dungeons?"

"Nothing, I was just left there." Ginny looked down at the floor as she pulled the cushion closer to her as if it was offering some form of protection or even just giving her a much needed hug. "Completely left alone: no contact, no food, no water. I guess for most, it would have been reasonably easy to take."

Luna looked at her with her penetrating blue eyes. "You don't like silence."

Ginny shrugged, hoping that the shrug would downplay the importance of her words. "No, I don't."

"I like silence," Luna mused as she displayed her knack for uncompromising honesty. "I wonder if it would be different if I was parted from my soul mate."

"We just had a couple of months together," Ginny protested, becoming aware of how much of a lie it was. It may have only been a couple of months but after what they had already been through together it may as well have been years. "I'm hardly Harry's soul mate."

Neville studied both of the two faces, her own utter misery and Luna's eternal glowing optimism, before he spoke, smiling, obviously thinking that he was coming to her rescue. "What did you think about?"

"Well," Ginny started, she hardly dared to look at them now. She knew only too well what they where going to make of this. "I spent a lot of time thinking about Harry," Neville was giving her a pitying look but she had to continue and not give in to her feelings about Harry. She gulped. It was important that they understood why she was telling them this and that it was not just her self pity getting the better of her: it was about helping to give Harry something that may stop this damn war and the utter mess it had caused. "And that lead me to thinking about Harry's birthday and it being interrupted by Scrimgeour's visit."

"Scrimgeour visited?" Ginny nodded. "While he was still Minister?" Neville questioned and Ginny nodded again. He looked shrewdly at her, understanding the meaning of her words. "Why haven't you mentioned this before?"

"With everything else that had happened, I honestly didn't think it was that important. I mean everything changed only hours later with the fall of the Ministry." Thinking about what had happened on Harry's birthday caused her to stop herself from speaking. There was no point in opening the wound that thinking about the full day would cause, instead she should just focus on the essentials. "Harry's birthday meal just didn't seem that important anymore, especially compared to everything else that was happening." She shrugged, though for the looks of them, neither Neville nor Luna bought her shrug. "But looking at it now, given time to stop and think, I guess I can be a real head case at times, and I should have known, even back then, that it was important. But the longer I had to think about it, the more I realised that it is. You see, he brought Dumbledore's will, and Dumbledore left Harry, the sword of Gryffindor."

Neville kept his eyes fixed on her. "The sword in Snape's office."

"That's the one." Ginny nodded, "And I want to give it to Harry. Dumbledore wanted him to have it so we have to break in and get it for him."

Luna's blue eyes were staring straight at her unblinking, "Are you owling Harry or using some other form of communication with him?"

"No."

Luna waited a few seconds before talking and her eyes glazed over slightly as if she was trying to dream up some kind of plan. "I was just trying to process," she paused again as her eyes drifted towards the fire, "how we will give Harry the sword after we retrieve it from the Headmaster's office."

"I've no idea," Ginny admitted in a soft somewhat weak tone, "but we have to _get_ that sword first. Then we can work out what to do next, 'cause I'm pretty sure getting the sword is not going to be that easy." She continued her voice slowly growing stronger and more confident with each word, "What do you think?"

Neville smiled. "Let's get the sword to Harry. Right, Luna?"

Luna was also displaying one of her dreamlike smiles. "I think that's an agreeable idea."

"So," Ginny pulled over one of the pieces of parchment that had just arrived containing maps of the school. "How do we get it?"

"The natural conclusion has to be to make use of the Room of Requirement," Luna twirled the ends of her hair as she spoke. "The distance to the Headmaster's Office from here is negligible."

It was well after curfew and even into the early hours when the three of them sneaked back to their respective common rooms. The next morning a half asleep Ginny joined the others at breakfast before struggling through a series of yawns in her Herbology and Charms lessons. She stopped briefly to ask Professor Flitwick a question about colour changing charms before heading back to the Great Hall, lunch and hopefully an afternoon where she could use her free period to catch up on some sleep.

At lunchtime, Luna crossed the Great Hall from the Ravenclaw tables to the Gryffindor tables, holding a pair of oddly shaped sandwiches in her hand.

"I intended to go and visit the squid, would you like to accompany me?"

Ginny smiled at her friend, she wanted to tackle Luna's soul mate comments. "Yeah, that would be good."

The pair of them headed out of the castle and onto the school grounds. They slowly, without much thought and no conversation, headed straight down to the trees by the lake. A shiver ran down Ginny's spine, as they reached the lake. She hoped it had much more to do with the November weather and nothing to do with the many days she had spent down here with Harry.

Ginny sat down resting her back against a tree, picking up a fallen leaf and shredding it in her hands as she spoke. "Luna, can I be completely honest with you?"

"Is there any other way to be?"

"I think I'm slowly losing it; failing apart at the edges." She ran her hands through her hair. "All I think about is what a mess things have become and then I feel guilty as people have problems much bigger than mine. I mean, I'm somewhat protected from all this." She rubbed her hand without thought massaging the 'pureblood' scar that had found its permanent place there. "I mean, the only thing that I've lost is Harry."

Luna offered her a smile and one of her unnerving gazes. "That is quite a loss."

"But nothing compared to all those that are losing family in all this." She shrugged, trying to hide the fact that she was struggling with her words, "Sometimes I think that I'm making so much more of this than there is, adding things that weren't there to begin with. I mean we only dated a couple of months before we broke up."

Luna's blue eyes met hers in an uncompromising gaze, "You have been involved with Harry for much longer than a few months, Ginny."

She forced a smile, but her voice still sounded weak, much weaker in fact than she allowed it to be with anyone other than Luna. "So it's okay to hurt this bad?"

"The heart is such a powerful driving force." Luna spoke in such a conversational tone that it would be easy to dismiss her words.

Ginny spoke with a bravado she hoped was managing to keep the desperate tone out of her voice. She was positive but at the same time knew that Luna would see through her act. "So what can I do now?"

"What's wrong with what you're doing?" Luna paused, leaving a deafening silence as the pair of them looked out at the cold lake. "Just like any great lover, you are fighting for him, just like any soul mate would."

"Oh, come on, Luna." Ginny met her friend's eyes. "You're not going to drop that soul mate line anytime soon, are you?"

"There is nothing wrong with honesty."

"If you say so," she sighed. This was a battle she was not going to win so it was much easier to change the subject than to fight against Luna's strange belief, especially since this myth that Luna had come up with may just have some basic truth in it. "Let's talk about the sword instead."

At the end of the lunch break, Luna went to her Divination lesson while Ginny went up to her dormitory room. She came down later to find that a Portable Swamp set off at the start of period three had led to detention for both Neville and Seamus. They really needed to start planning these events better, especially if they wanted to get the sword. The Death Eaters just seemed to have spies everywhere.

She stayed in the common room late into the night with bits of parchment in front of her jotting down as many ideas of ways to distract Snape and the Carrows without any of them getting hurt in the crossfire. It was gone midnight when she finally gave up plotting D.A. tactics and her brain was dead and all other help had disappeared into their respective four poster beds.

Ginny forced back a yawn as she stared into the fire. She was not going to let tiredness get the better of her as she waited for Neville and Seamus. She would stay up here until they came back up, just like Neville would have done for her.

No Gryffindor would return to the common room after a detention to face the aftermath on his own. It had almost become an unwritten rule. It had taken a lot of convincing the others to finally go to bed. There was normally a group of them that stayed up but she had a double free period in the morning, and there was no point in others entering their lessons not prepared for the Death Eaters.

She glanced down at the essay for Professor McGonagall. She had barely written three inches on 'The Dangers of Human Transfiguration and How to Prevent Them' which was due in only a matter of hours. She knew she had the ideal time to write the essay since she was staying up anyway and it was a good way to get rid of some of her workload.

Without thinking about what she was doing, Ginny picked up a spare bit of parchment and with a small flick of her wrist aimed it straight into the empty fire grate.

She needed something to fill her mind right now and she was pretty sure an essay she didn't want to write wouldn't do it. She'd take McGonagall's detention instead; it would be nothing compared to the Carrows' punishments so it really wouldn't be a big deal at all. She didn't want to focus on what might be happening to Neville in his detention and the fact that he should surely have been back by now. She picked up another piece and crushed it into a small ball and with another flick of her wrist let it glide through the air and into the grate again.

Finally, well into the early hours of Wednesday morning the two seventh years returned both sporting cuts on their faces. After quick hugs and explanations, all three gave in to the need of returning to their dorm rooms.

The later morning went reasonably well writing the essay for her Head of House in her free period, after deciding against the detention option when seeing the Transfiguration teacher at breakfast. Despite everything that was going on Professor McGonagall was never going to accept any excuse for not handing homework in. The morning continued in its boring fashion and even included a lecture free if not a homework free Transfiguration lesson. Lunch was uneventful with no further detentions earned by any of the members of Dumbledore's Army and then it was back to face the Death Eaters and their views with her Dark Arts lesson. The pattern took its familiar fashion as the bell went and Ginny headed to the back row of Amycus Carrow's classroom and her protective row of books.

Ginny couldn't help but admit that she was a little relieved when Amycus Carrow announced at the start of period five on Thursday that this would be the last lesson on the Cruciatus Curse. From Monday's lesson, they would be moving on to the Imperius Curse. With that news she settled into the lesson and pulled out a bit of parchment containing a map of the seventh floor of the school.

She ran her hand over the drawing, trying to work out the best route to the Headmaster's office and Gryffindor's sword, occasionally pointing out routes and whispering to Luna.

"Miss Weasley," Amycus Carrow's wheeze broke through Ginny's daze.

"Yes, sir" She replied with as much bitterness and distain as she could muster in her voice.

"I would like to use you in the demonstration of the Cruciatus Curse."

"Fine," she growled.

She had expected this; after all, she was the Death Eater's favourite example to be used in the practice of the Unforgivable Curses, especially with the desired effect that it had already caused on her. She slammed her stool back behind her letting it crash loudly against the floor in order to cause as much disruption as she could before being subjected to that curse yet again. She turned to Luna before she started to move placing her wand into Luna's hand.

"No, Miss Weasley," he grinned, "You misunderstand. I would like you to perform the curse on Miss Lovegood."


	8. Breaking and Entering

Chapter Eight: Breaking and Entering

Disclaimer: Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

"No." Ginny spoke in a strong defiant tone. "She can perform it on me instead."

"That's not really an option here," Carrow wheezed, excitement almost overcoming him as he was literally bouncing on his feet. "Perform the curse on Miss Lovegood, Miss Weasley."

"No," she repeated in a stronger tone, "I'll be your example. There's no problem there but Luna can perform the curse on me." She tried forcing herself to keep fear out of her voice but it still shook a little. "Hell, you can even show her how to do it."

"Tempting…" Carrow stroked his wand as he spoke and she could feel him looking at her in that lustful way that sent a shiver down her spine. "But not today. Today, I would like you to perform the curse on Miss Lovegood."

"No," she spat again, "give me the detention or send me to Snape instead, I'm not performing _that _curse."

There was now no mistake that Carrow was enjoying himself as he rubbed his hands with glee and did actually bounce up and down as he spoke. He really was a sick twisted old git. "That's not an option today; either you perform the curse on Miss Lovegood or I perform it on her tonight in detention — and your detention can be to watch."

Ginny stood still, frozen.

She had no comeback to that statement, except just maybe to perform the curse.

She couldn't let him curse Luna, not after what that curse had done to her.

Ginny gulped and she could feel her throat drying up.

She could hardly believe what she had been asked to do. No, that wasn't right; she _could_ believe it. What she couldn't believe was that she was _considering_ doing it.

Every part in her brain was screaming for her not to do this, to refuse, to do whatever she had to do to get out of it. She considered causing a scene, kicking off so much that Carrow was forced to call an early end to the lesson. And she really couldn't care less what the repercussions of her not casting that spell would be. There was a reason why the Cruciatus Curse was not to be used, why it was, or used to be before Voldemort's proxy government, listed as an Unforgivable Curse and that reason sent shivers down her spine as she drew on the memories of visiting her dad at St Mungo's during the Christmas of her fourth year.

That curse destroyed people, good people. Casting this spell went against every moral thing her parents had taught her, against every thought that made up her being and Carrow knew that.

That was why he had asked her.

Ginny looked at Luna who was now standing in front of her, wandless. Luna had lost her dreamlike expression; she looked strong, determined and encouraging.

Luna smiled and gave the smallest nod as she took Ginny's hand and led her to the front of the class.

With her hand shaking, Ginny slowly reached for her wand. Her hand was trembling so much as she raised it, that even had she wanted to cast the spell correctly, she would have struggled.

"Crucio," she said in barely even a whisper.

The room had fallen so quiet that you could hear her voice amongst the gasps that had taken place. Like her own conscience, her classmates could not believe that she had uttered that word but as Luna had said, that curse had to be better coming from a friend rather than from a Death Eater. She did not want Luna struggling to move as she had just before her only Quidditch match this year.

Luna smiled at her again, encouraging her, as Carrow moved closer to Ginny, too close, and Ginny found a wave of sickness hit her as she saw him leering at her again. Her friend's dreamlike expression had finally returned as if everything was perfectly natural and it was just a normal run of the mill Hogwarts lesson, which it had actually now become. Ginny was not sure which disturbed her more, Luna's reaction to the lesson or the fact that the nature of such lessons had become an everyday part of Hogwarts life.

Hadn't she already seen this curse cast by classmates at least a dozen times since September?

The familiar shiver ran down Ginny's spine, the shiver that made her want to dive for the door. Indeed it took all her courage to stay standing, unmoving.

"Issue the curse again," he wheezed.

"Ginny," Luna kept her voice plain without any of its usual sing-song quality, "remember what we have agreed, what we have _all_ agreed to do."

Slowly she raised her wand again and using every inch of Gryffindor courage that she had in her spoke more clearly. "Crucio."

Luna's body twitched midair for the briefest of seconds until Ginny had lowered her wand. As soon as Luna's body fell to the floor, Ginny was on the move, using all the speed and agility she had learnt in playing Quidditch and was at Luna's side.

"LUNA! Luna! Luna?" She cried, unable to keep the panic out of her voice and the tears out her eyes; unable to keep the memory of the effect that she had suffered under the same curse out of her mind.

Ginny's worry was unfounded as Luna regained her composure much sooner than Ginny had done under Carrow's curse and looked just like herself only half way through the lesson. Unlike the day that it had taken her to fully recover, Luna was back to her normal self within just a matter of minutes. Luna had obviously been right: hate-fuelled curses were better performed by friends instead of Death Eaters posing as teachers.

The rest of the lesson and indeed the rest of the day went without anything of note and once again it was the D.A. meeting that brought any substance to the day. The only thing that caught Ginny attention slightly was Andrew Harper being called out of Muggle Studies by Professor Slughorn. It seemed that Ginny was now just living for the hours that they were spending in the Room of Requirement these days. It seemed to be the only thing good that they had going on.

Half an hour was spent on practicing Shield Charms before they sat down in the centre of the room to discuss plans for the next few days.

"Ginny, Luna and I are breaking into Amycus Carrow's office tomorrow to see if we can liberate some of the records. It would be really useful to see what they are writing about us, to work out what they already know. We need to know how far we can push things and who's on their hit list." Neville spoke with a level of authority that held the whole group hanging on his every word as he pointed towards the map of the school. "So we need a big diversion at the other end of the school, maybe around the library."

"Wait," Demelza said, as she stared straight at Ginny, "I thought you were staying out of the limelight since they're still gunning for you."

"It's been weeks, Demelza," Ginny sighed. She should have known that she was going to get this reaction. Certain members of the D.A., namely her friends, had been claiming that she should not be involved in anything remotely high profile in the war against the Death Eaters until at least after the Christmas holidays. As far as she was concerned, what the others thought, even if they were her friends, didn't matter. The break-in to get the records was just a practice run to perfect their real goal—getting the sword for Harry. The others didn't need to know that right now, and maybe they didn't even need to know that until much, much later when it was safe for them to be able to hear. But the important thing was there was no way she was going to take a back seat for that plan. She was in it to the hilt no matter what anyone else thought. "I'm not made for sitting around doing nothing and we really need to get a glimpse at those records."

"But..." Demelza pressed on, unwilling to give in. She seemed to be just as stubborn as Ginny was today. Normally it was a quality that Ginny would admire in a friend but today that wasn't going to be the case. Today she was not going to back down so she really didn't want to fight with her friend. "Wouldn't you be better causing the diversion," Demelza tried a different tack, a less aggressive one, "instead of being in the centre of mayhem?"

"She has a point," Michael Corner continued, surprising Ginny with his concern, she thought that that level of concern had died a long time ago as he transferred his attentions to Cho Chang.

But maybe, as Lavender had already shown the up and downs of crushes, relationships and their fall outs belonged in a different world now. Before, they were just like any other teenagers, able to let their hormones run wild and allowing petty disputes to get in the way of friendships. Now it was different and although their hormonal instincts were still very much a part of them, it was more important to focus on this damn war and winning it than on their love lives. Why else would she be writing fruitless letters to Harry and dreaming about him? Maybe after they had kicked the Death Eaters' asses, they could get their love lives back. At least that is what she was praying for if, no _when_, Harry finally made it back to her.

"I'm not sure it's wise to have you three together. It's just like the rule where heads of state can't travel together." Attention turned to Michael and lots of heads were nodding in agreement but few others looked at him, clearly confused by his words. "If something happened, there needs to be someone else to take over, so they stop them travelling together except in very special circumstances but never mind that. The point is that we can't lose all three of you in one swoop, should the worst happen."

"Well, it won't happen if you give us a damn good diversion, eh, Michael?" Ginny grinned at her former boyfriend, trying to dismiss his worries.

"I'll have you covered for that," Seamus said. Ginny was really growing fond of Seamus. Whether it was stupidity, bravery or a mixture of the two, Seamus was the first one to step up to the plate when action was called for and as Ginny had a simple frame of mind this year and her own actions could be seen as very similar to Seamus', she preferred to see it as bravery. Seamus grinned and his Irish lilt captivated the attention of the group. "Who's up for letting off fireworks near the library? That will take a good bit of cleaning up."

"I'll help," Lavender volunteered, smiling back at the fellow seventh-year before blushing and turning away.

Ginny couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously fill her heart as she watched the two in the early stages of flirting, a twinge that she tried to dismiss as quickly as it came. Just because her heart was tearing in two didn't mean that other people couldn't go out with each other. Maybe not everyone's love lives had been brought to a complete halt. She had been fighting Death Eaters last year while she was falling in love. Her twinge grew as she glanced over at Demelza who sat hand in hand with Ritchie and it got even worse as her attention was forced to turn to Hannah Abbott.

"Me, too," said Hannah as she smiled at Neville.

The sweetness growing between Hannah and Neville was like something starting to rip holes in her heart so it was no longer in two pieces but shredded. In fact, if you could look at her heart she had a feeling that the similarity to Swiss cheese could be seen. It felt riddled through with a series of holes that would never be allowed to heal until Harry returned. It was even more important that these plans worked; that the trial run worked; that Harry got that sword if she ever wanted to have her heart mended again, not to mention that the sword would help get rid of the evil dictator ruling their country.

"Let's plan for about one-ish," Neville said.

"Shouldn't be a problem," Seamus grinned, "we'll work in the library from twelve thirty so we're ready to go."

"Thanks," Ginny replied with a forced smile as she focussed on a plan coming into action and not on the fact that the whole of the D.A. may be flirting with each other while the one she wanted to spend time flirting with was God knows where. She pulled the radio to the centre of the room, partly for a distraction from the raging hormones in the room and partly to satisfy the needs of her own heart, and started to poke it with her wand. "Best find out what else is happening out there."

Suddenly the tiny radio glowed as noise came from the speaker, as she finally guessed the password of 'Vance'. "We apologise for our temporary absence from the airwaves which was due to a number of house calls in our local area by those ever so charming Death Eaters. We've now found ourselves another secure location," Lee Jordan was saying, "and I'm pleased to tell you that two of our regular contributors have joined me here this evening. Evening, boys!"

Ginny dared not breathe as Lee Jordan's voice filled the room and she knew from experience that her breath would not return until Remus Lupin had updated them on Harry's status. Her body was tense and until she heard that Harry had not been found by the Death Eaters or worse, it wouldn't start to relax, breath wouldn't leave her body and her heart wouldn't beat properly.

She needed her lifeline to confirm that she could keep fighting, that there might be someone waiting at the end of this hell.

"Hi."

"Evening, River."

"But before we hear from Royal and Romulus," Lee went on, "let's take a moment to report those deaths that the _Wizarding Wireless Network News _and _Daily Prophet _don't think important enough to mention to the rest of the wizarding population and hide the details from our own innocent ears. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Connor Johnson and his fiancée Sara Harper, both of whom died while trying to protect Muggles. Our heartfelt sympathy is extended to Connor's parents and sister, a personal friend of mine, and to Sara's father and younger brother."

Ginny felt her heart plummet. She felt even worse than she had about being jealous about some innocent flirting or longing over a boyfriend she had only had for a matter of months. There were far more important things than her torn heart at the moment. And Angelina Johnson had always been good to her as well as growing ever closer to Fred. It was so hard to hear that she would now be suffering the very thing that Ginny herself dreaded — the loss of an older brother. She couldn't count the number of times that she had lost sleep over that thought and here, stranded at Hogwarts, there was nothing she could do even to attempt to offer some kind of words of comfort.

"Meanwhile, in Peterborough, a family of three Muggles, two young parents and their eight-month-old son, has been found dead in their home. Muggle authorities are assigning their deaths to a gas leak, but members of the Order of the Phoenix, who have inspected the scene, inform me that it was the Killing Curse. This is yet more evidence, as if it were needed, that Muggle slaughter is becoming little more than a recreational sport under the new regime.

"Listeners, I'd like to invite you now to join us in a minute's silence in memory of Connor Johnson, Sara Harper, and the unnamed but no less regretted Muggles murdered by the Death Eaters."

Silence fell and no one in the Room of Requirement spoke. Half of Ginny was so eager to hear more and the other half was afraid of what might come next. It was only these broadcasts that told them what was really happening as they appeared to be the only thing left uncensored, especially with her mail now being checked. It was the only time that she felt fully connected to the outside world and they told her if the D.A. was making any difference.

Unlike Angelina's brother and his fiancée, they were unable to try to protect Muggles or to join the Order of the Phoenix but they could help. They could get hold of that sword and then find some way, any way, to get that sword to Harry.

Plans for their trial run and the breaking and entering tomorrow in Amycus Carrow's office had taken on an even greater importance than it had already.

The radio broadcast, covered issues of safety, updates on Voldemort's status and other useful tips as well as the fact that buoyed her heart despite all the gloom that Harry, so far, had avoided detection and was therefore as safe as he could be at the moment. After a couple of hours it ended, and with the reaffirming of plans for the next day, the members of Dumbledore's Army headed back to their respective common rooms.

Neville and Luna paused with Ginny as they watched the others leave.

"You've perfected the Colour-Changing Charm on your hair, right?" Neville checked. "The red is kind of a giveaway."

Ginny nodded. "And I've got the Headless Hats for when we get we get closer to the office. I don't want anyone having a clue that it's us."

"Those hats should help protect against the Nargles," Luna interrupted, "Around that area of the school they attack your heads and, should the Death Eaters encounter us there, we'll have a very legitimate reason for having them. We just need to be careful of the situation ourselves."

"That's useful to know. It's always good to have some kind of excuse for breaking the rules." Neville grinned. "Remember to watch for Nargles, Ginny."

She smiled back, "Got it — watch out for Nargles."

Ginny paid no attention in Potions the next morning and even less attention in Charms. If the Death Eaters didn't catch her for her acts of defiance, her mother was going to skin her alive when she got her home during the Christmas holidays as she was pretty sure that her new series of Ps instead of the usual mixture of Es and Os, would do little to impress her family. Before lunchtime she made her way to the end of the first floor with Luna, and where Amycus Carrow's office was.

While Luna looked up and down the corridor Ginny raised her wand to her hair giving it a quick twist and flick before she placed the tip against her bright red hair. She watched carefully as the colour changed temporarily to a far less recognisable dark brown. She briefly wondered if she should try to change other features of her appearance but didn't have the confidence in her abilities to do that.

Maybe there was a point in listening in her lessons instead of tuning them out. Other than upping her marks, the teachers might be actually saying something useful. She guessed they had to be pretty good at magic and know some useful stuff, even if they were just teachers.

"Impressive," Neville said gesturing to Ginny's newly brown hair as he met them at the end to the corridor.

"Thanks," she replied with a genuine smile. "Want me to have a go with yours? Ever seen yourself as a blond?"

"Brown will do; it's not as obvious as the red anyhow, so I think the hats will do." Neville smiled at her. "Do you have the spare robes?"

"Slytherin ones." Ginny grinned. "Got them out of the laundry this morning."

With quick waves of Neville's wand the three of them where dressed in the black, green and silver school uniforms. Ginny reached into her bag and pulled out three of the Headless Hats.

"I guess this is the best we can do without any Polyjuice." Ginny smiled again but her jaw was hurting since she hadn't smiled this much in so long. "Shame Slughorn's being more protective with his potion supplies this year."

"I will keep looking for that full moon," Luna assured the other two.

"Well, let's see if we can get away with doing this without, first." Neville encouraged them. "Let's go, the diversion should be underway and you need to get back in time for Transfiguration if possible or we'll lose the 'I was in class, Sir', excuse."

Ginny nodded as she pulled out a hair grip before putting on a Headless Hat, "Here goes nothing."

Without another look backwards she headed straight down the corridor towards the Dark Arts teacher's office. Building on the strength from having Luna over her shoulder, she used the hair grip to pick the lock in the Muggle fashion. When she got back to The Burrow for the Christmas holidays she wouldn't be able to thank Fred and George enough for teaching her all these tricks. This trick was especially useful since they had already decided against using magic on the door. There was probably an alarm that would trigger against magic but with their prejudices neither of the Carrows would think to guard against anything that could be remotely used by Muggles.

Carefully she started to twist the grip in the keyhole while she could hear Neville whispering messages to hurry into her ear. She muttered back to him that after years of breaking into the broom shed back home she knew that this was the part that may take some time. It was the trick of getting the right click in the door. Even after years of practice she had still not perfected getting that click every time within a couple of moments.

It didn't help either that right now her heart was pounding so fast, that it made it hard to concentrate. Nor that she could see her hands shaking so she had to keep taking the pin out and starting again. She took a couple of long slow deep breaths; she needed to focus and stay calm if she wanted to get in there quickly.

After what seemed like hours later, although it was probably just a couple of minutes at the most, she heard the door click and with a soft push the door opened.

"Well done, Ginny," Neville said as she crossed the threshold.

Ginny turned, and quickly took her hat of to wink at him before placing it back on, "There are some advantages to having so many brothers, and I'm not Fred and George's sister without reason."

"Oh, we already know that. I reckon you are growing more devious than them though." You could hear the smile in his voice as he spoke. "They'd be proud and so would Harry."

"Cheers, Nev," she replied, feeling her heart buoying. "Lets get going though and save this for the Room of Requirement."

"Search everywhere," Neville said as he followed her into the room.

Ginny turned to the desk literally turning it upside down as she pulled out the drawers and Neville to the large filing cabinet while Luna tackled the bookcase. Within seconds the room looked so messy it looked like a niffler had been let loose in there. Just as planned, they searched in silence, causing as much disruption to the room as possible until Neville finally turned round, took his hat off and shot them a broad grin.

"Got them," Neville said as he threw stacks of cards into his school bag.

Ginny joined him to help, aware of how little time they had to do this. Her hands were frantic as she started stuffing the cards into the bag barely looking at them. Their movements got quicker with each second that passed as Luna played guard at the door.

Neville threw the bag back over his shoulder, letting some of the cards fall out of the bag as he moved.

"Okay, let's get out here."

"Wait, let me grab these," Ginny said picking up the top card, seeing the actual writing for the first time and pausing, frozen at the words.

"Ginny?" Luna's voice floated over.

"Ginny?" Neville's own voice echoed. "Come on! We need to get out of here."

Some part of her knew that they were making sense. She could stare at this later; she had hours to attempt to process what was going on once they were out of here. Standing frozen in a Death Eater's office was hardly a good idea. The diversion should be long over by now and they needed to hurry and get out of there but she didn't know how to make her legs move to do it.

"Ginny!" Neville's voice became more frantic as he grabbed her arm with one hand and the fallen cards with the other. "We've got everything; let's get going before Snape or the Carrows get here."


	9. The Headmaster's Office

Chapter Nine: The Headmaster's Office

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

With the card that felt so unbelievably hot in her hand it felt it would burn straight through, she let Neville lead her out of the office and through the halls of Hogwarts. She was hardly aware of what she was doing nor that she did not see any trouble in the school. Perhaps for once they had got the diversion right as well as the plan itself. She was also only dully aware of both Neville and Luna telling her that she had to go to Transfiguration.

Ginny tucked the card into her school bag along with the Headless Hat. Without much thought, she used her wand to change her hair and robes back before joining the back of the line for her Transfiguration lesson. Despite her daze, she knew just what she had to do. She had to see that card again, and soon. Focus in on the words, _Chamber of Secrets_, and she was not going to get time to do that in a lesson. Making sure that no one was paying much attention to her she swallowed half of a Fever Fudge sweet.

She knew that she should hardly be taking something to get her out of Professor McGonagall's lesson. She really should save these for a Monday and four hours of Death Eater lessons but it couldn't wait that long. She really needed an out for this lesson; needed a closer look at that card and hours suffering from a fever in the hospital wing would work wonders at the moment.

Feeling woozy and more than a little unsteady on her feet she made her way to the back of the room and to the desk that hid her from main sight. She knew how to make this work, and make a doubtful McGonagall believe that she was actually ill. McGonagall would not believe huge scenes; her Head of House knew how she worked her pranks too well for that. In order to get out of this lesson, she needed to look as if she was battling on through the pain and suffering.

The sweet did not take long to take full affect, and she let her head drop to the table. Patiently in half a daze and with her head whirling, she waited for the Transfiguration teacher to come over to her. It was not going to be hard to put on the act of being ill now. Her head was spinning so fast and she felt so hot that she might well have fallen sick with fever naturally.

"Miss Weasley?" The Head of Gryffindor asked with clear concern in her voice. And without waiting for a reply she shocked Ginny with the use of her first name, "Ginny."

"Yes, Professor," Ginny murmured.

"Are you feeling alright?" McGonagall continued in a more business-like tone.

"Yeah," she murmured again, "just not feeling too great but I'll be fine."

Professor McGonagall lifted Ginny's head so that she could look into Ginny's eyes and felt her forehead. She could see McGonagall's eyes narrowing, there was no doubt she was more than a little suspicious, "Have you taken anything?"

"No, Professor," Ginny spoke in a clearer voice, "I'm not trying to get out of class, Professor."

Professor McGonagall looked at her shrewdly as she continued to feel her forehead, "No Weasley products?"

"No, Professor," Ginny spoke in her most innocent tone, "I don't have any and if I did I wouldn't waste them, Professor."

"Well, I think you may just be coming down with a fever," the Head of Gryffindor looked around the class before writing a note for Madam Pomfrey, "Mr Coote, could you take Miss Weasley up to the hospital wing, please?"

"Of course, Professor," Ritchie said as he got to his feet and made his way over. He picked up Ginny's bag and offered her his arm. "You okay, Ginny?"

"I'll be fine." She tried to relieve the worried look in his eyes as they made their way to the door.

"Miss Weasley," Professor McGonagall spoke in stern tones which stopped the pair as quickly as if she had cast a freezing charm on them. "If I find out that you have been somewhere other than the hospital wing for the rest of the day, I will be placing you in detention."

Ginny briefly nodded her head. That proved not to be a good idea as it sent her head spinning again. "Yes, Professor."

Ritchie let her slump over his shoulder, helping her walk. She had to focus on what was happening around the school and struggled to walk or talk. There was still no sign of any trouble. Hogwarts looked just the same.

There was more than a small chance that this had all worked.

Ritchie was not to be put off by the silence or glances around the school and the prospect of trouble free Hogwarts. He still had questions for she could tell that from the look in his eyes. Although he did wait until they were three floors up from the Transfiguration classroom until he broached the subject of her sudden illness.

"You look really bad, Ginny. Have you taken anything?" he hissed, keeping his voice low. "Has anyone given you anything? You weren't caught, were you?"

"No," she replied, not entirely sure why she was still lying.

"Well, let's get you up there then." He offered her a smile but he still looked unconvinced. "We can hardly have you going down sick. The D.A. needs its leader."

"Ritchie?" she asked as her thoughts were brought back to Seamus, Lavender, Hannah and the others.

She hadn't really been the one taking the risk today. Fireworks had to be more obvious than breaking into an office the Muggle way. And Hogwarts was quiet now, almost too quiet. She had to know everything; she wanted no distraction when she finally reached the hospital wing.

"Yeah?"

"No one got caught earlier, right?"

"It went off just as planned, no problems." He reassured her. "And you got the cards, right?"

She nodded, "Right."

Ginny let Madam Pomfrey fuss over her as she ushered her to a bed in the hospital wing. She only took the other end of the sweet when the elderly witch had made her way into the office at the end of the hospital wing.

Once she was feeling more herself she settled down in the large bed and pulled out the Hogwarts card, well, actually, series of cards with her name on them. She quickly cast a Disillusionment Charm over them. The hospital wing had been very busy this year and she didn't want anyone, even members of the D.A., many _especially_ the members of Dumbledore's Army, seeing what she was reading.

Ginny ignored the basic information, her name, house, year, blood status and so on and only paid scant attention to her academic record. Her marks had dropped even lower than she had feared and had now reached an all time low of Ds, she was going to have to put in a hell of a lot of work to pull them back up when the Death Eaters finally were booted out of the school. She barely glanced at the eight-page-long disciplinary record. She did linger to look at the copies of letters that had been attached from the Chudley Cannons, Holyhead Harpies and Montrose Magpies expressing an interest in sending scouts to watch her in the Gryffindor Quidditch matches. However, it was the notes that had been attached by Snape that drew her real attention.

_First Year: Ginevra had an eventful year which can still be used to our advantage years later. It is well known that Ginevra was taken into the Chamber of Secrets and barely survived. However, it is not so well known that Ginevra was the one to open the Chamber of Secrets herself. In order to do this, she completely gave in to her pure-blood nature, something that can be drawn upon to help her become part of the new regime. Ginevra may be more willing to accept our policies than first impressions give, especially if reminded of these events._

Ginny felt sick.

Everyone else she knew liked to forget about the events of the Chamber of Secrets and hoped that she had. As she had no desperate need to relive the worst moments of her life, she liked to let others forget that she had been taken down there. She really did not need Death Eaters to be aware of both the fact that she had been down there and that she had been the one to let Slytherin's monster out.

That she had been responsible for the attacks on Muggle-borns.

She still had enough problems dealing with that herself without the Death Eaters being aware of it; that could easily be used to their advantage.

With a deep gulp, Ginny forced herself to read on.

_Second Year: Ginevra settled in to Hogwarts life in this year. She became more involved with her class work, proving herself to be reasonably intelligent and built some good friendships. However, she appears to still be suffering from the events of the previous year. Ginevra made frequent visits to Madam Pomfrey to request a potion for a Dreamless Sleep. It is also worthy of note that Ginevra has severe reactions to Dementors. This could be used well against her._

_Third Year: Ginevra has showed good development. She has a series of impressive marks as well as showing herself to have a defiant streak. Ginevra has revealed an impressive temper that can easily be sparked. Ginevra now visits the hospital wing much less frequently but can still be seen to request a potion for a Dreamless Sleep._

_Fourth Year: Ginevra appeared to have finally moved on from the events that took place in the Chamber of Secrets. She has become popular among her peers and has shown herself to have a talent for Quidditch. Already professional Quidditch teams have taken note of this and expressed an interest in tracking her career. Ginevra has also shown herself to be rash and reckless this year as she took an unnecessary trip to the Ministry of Magic to fight the Dark Lord's followers at the end of the school year._

_Fifth Year: Ginevra has developed a very close relationship with Harry Potter and they have dated during the course of the school year. In the later months of the year, the pair was barely separated, a fact that can be exploited now. Ginevra fought the Dark Lord's supporters on the night that Dumbledore was removed from the school, showing an unwavering loyalty to those fighting the new regime._

_Points Worthy of Note: Ginevra has shown her loyalty to be with the Order of the Phoenix, the teenage version of that group, Dumbledore's Army, and other undesirables. For that point alone she is very much worthy of careful scrutiny. She has also developed a very close relationship with Undesirable Number One (perhaps the closest that he has). It is very likely that he will contact her. She has no respect for her pure-blood status, with a number of Mudblood friends, although this may be something that is easily addressed as her pure-blood tendencies have shown themselves when she opened the Chamber of Secrets in her first year at Hogwarts._

Ginny wanted to use her wand to set fire to her records before sinking further into her bed although that may have alerted Madam Pomfrey to the fact that she was reading something other than Transfiguration notes. She was forced to settle for hiding them in the bottom of her bag, with the knowledge that she would be destroying them later.

How could they have known this much? And how could they have written this down, plotting to use her nightmares against her? She should have known to expect the stuff about Harry and her family. The Death Eaters had already made it painfully clear that they knew what had happened there but only a few people knew the truth about the Chamber of Secrets and they rarely, if ever, spoke of it.

Most people liked to forget about the events that had taken place in the Chamber of Secrets and she was very happy to let them do that. To potentially get that dragged up again was stuff from her nightmares.

Damn it, wasn't she already dealing with enough this year?

She let herself fall into a restless sleep which was filled with images of large snakes, ghostly versions of Tom Riddle and of her doing something to let Harry down.

In the morning, Ginny became dully aware of what a night she must have had as Madam Pomfrey asked her about her screams and questioned the need for more potions for Dreamless Sleep. It was only after Ginny had reassured the Hogwarts Healer for a good hour that she would be okay that she was told of all the visitors that had come to the hospital wing to see her tossing and turning last night.

Saturday morning brought a D.A. meeting of little note and an afternoon of Ginny sitting in the Quidditch stands enviously watching the Gryffindor Quidditch team practice with Demelza taking the lead.

She was longing to be up there so much it hurt. She knew that it was feeble to feel like this, especially with everything else going on but that didn't stop that sense of longing.

Was it so wrong to want an afternoon of fun, where she could float up into the air and leave her worries on the ground?

Was it wrong to want to do something that she enjoyed, that she was good at and that didn't involve anything that was a constant painful fight?

Was it wrong to want to try and get that Harpies contract that had been hinted at in her file and get the dream she had had since she was seven?

Must she have just the nightmares this year without any of the hopes and dreams?

Right now, she would do anything for that adrenaline rush, to feel the wind pounding against her skin and to feel the wind in her hair and to get the natural buzz and high that came as the Quaffle finally landed through the hoops and she heard the screams from the crowds fill her ears.

Quidditch was and always had been so much more than a sport to her. It was confirmation of her acceptance of being equal and not just the Weasley girl or Harry Potter's girlfriend. It was the source of all her energy, a real adrenaline rush. Sitting here, so close to it yet so far away, was making her realise how much she missed it— more than she had realised.

Attempting to push her jealousy back to where it belonged, right at the pit of her stomach, she pulled out quill and parchment and started making the notes Demelza had asked her to.

Demelza really was perfecting the role of captain. In fact with the attention that she paid to the team she was a much better captain than Ginny had been and Demelza's Chaser abilities were as good as ever. Natalie was really coming to grips with her dives; Ginny had been right about her natural enthusiasm being a good quality to have. Ritchie and Jimmy were now working so well together they even at times reminded her of Fred and George. The Keane twins were coming along nicely and even her own replacement, second year Ling Chan, was showing some nice touches.

Half way through the session, Ginny headed down to the pitch to share her notes with Demelza for the second part of the practice.

"That was really good, Demelza," Ginny started, grinning, "Natalie just needs to pull off the dives a fraction quicker and she's got it."

"Thanks, Ginny, I know this can't be easy for you," Demelza said as she attempted to match her friend's smile. "What about the Chasers?"

"I think that defensive tactics maybe a good idea against Ravenclaw, they're good up front and we have some fast..." Ginny started before her attention was drawn to the loud noises that were being made by the approaching Slytherin team. "Oh, shit! That's just what we need."

"But we have the pitch booked and it was hard enough to do that as it was," Demelza protested. "They can't just come down here and take it half-way through our practice."

"Don't worry, they won't be staying long," Ginny said through gritted teeth as she kept her eyes fixed on the Slytherin Quidditch captain, "I know how to deal with Malfoy."

"Ginny," Demelza had that pleading quality in her voice, "please don't do anything stupid. Don't lose your temper, he's not worth it."

Ginny flashed her friend a grin before walking forward and leaving the Gryffindor team that had all now landed.

"Malfoy, what are you doing down here?" Ginny spat as she made her way over to the Slytherin Quidditch captain. "This pitch has been booked for Gryffindor and you know that!"

"I have more right to be here than you, Weaslette," he drawled. "You've been banned so just move aside like a good little girl."

Ginny shrugged, forcing herself not to rise to the bait. "That may be, but you still have less right than the rest of the people here." She shot him a smile. "So you just move aside, like a good little boy."

"But I have nothing else better to do." Draco was smirking. "I'm bored and I want to play Quidditch and, unlike with you, Professor Carrow has okayed that."

"Oh, and whatever the Death Eater says goes. Silly me, I forgot." Ginny kept a tight smile on her lips. "It's a shame, despite what's going with our new regime, I still don't listen to Death Eaters or that might actually mean something."

"Things have changed, Weaslette." He smiled at her. "It's time you woke up, smelt the coffee, realised things are never going to change that. You may as well get used to it and stop fighting against it." His smile grew, it was more like a sneer now. "If you had sense, you may see that your birthright still might be worth protecting." He paused to add weight to his words and gain the attention of all those around him. He obviously wanted this part of the argument to be heard. "Like it or not, you're a pure-blood, Ginevra."

"I don't give a damn about who my family are except for the things that they have taught me. You know, things that money can't buy; things that may not be valued in this dictatorship which probably means that they count all the more." She spoke slowly, not rushing, getting each word she spoke across, well aware of the audience they now had watching the pair of them. "Things like respect, love, honesty, friendship and common decency. Those are the things that matter, not who's a pure-blood and who's not, 'cause that's all bull. There's been loads of pure-bloods that have screwed things up, just as many Muggle-borns who have become great and vice versa."

"So good with your propaganda, Weasley, but what you fail to understand is that I know more than you think. I've seen more, I know how this is going to end." He laughed. "Save your speeches for people who need them, rally your little army, fight your losing cause." He laughed again, a cold laugh that echoed and this time was repeated by the other Slytherins. "But before you do that don't you think it would be good to let them in on a few little secrets, particularly concerning the Chamber of Secrets."

"Shut it, Malfoy," she hissed through the silence that had now fallen, both teams clinging to each word spoken.

"Don't you think that people deserve to know what a hypocrite you are?" Draco was in his element now, tones of pure joy in his voice. He had been successfully baited and now he had the way to stab back and there was nothing Ginny could do about it. "That how the person that is all for protecting the Mudbloods was the one who at just eleven sent Slytherin's monster after them to eliminate them from Hogwarts."

Without any thought, Ginny threw her fist back and slammed it straight into Malfoy's face. Even through her blurry, tear-filled eyes she could clearly make out the gushing bright red as her fist made contact with Malfoy's nose.

"That wasn't me," she whispered, willing herself to believe the words. "That wasn't me."

Ignoring the cries following after her she headed straight for the Tower at a run. She did not want to turn round. She couldn't bear to see the looks on their faces, the accusing looks that would remind her how guilty she was and how much of a hypocrite she was being right now.

Not only was she not doing anything that was helpful as she was sat in Hogwarts, but she may just have been part of the problem that they were fighting against in the first place.

Once she reached her dorm room, she sank into her bed and pulled the covers over her head. She let the cold tears freely flow down her hot face, leaving a stinging effect as they reached her lips, with no desire to stop them. Yes, at eleven, she may have been stupid and naive but that didn't stop those words from being any less than the truth. Was there something that Tom Riddle had seen in her, was there some part of her that agreed with the new regime, some part of her that had let her perform that curse on Luna?

Maybe Harry knew that. Maybe he was better off without her. Maybe that was why he had just left her, without answers. He was the hero here and she was nothing less than a fraud.

He was probably better off without her.

Everyone was probably better off without her.

She ignored all the calls from her worried friends' voices as they tried to check on her later that day. She feigned sleep, unwilling to move. She couldn't face the other Gryffindors, let alone the rest of the school. She only moved the next morning when Professor McGonagall came up to her dorm room to inform her that she had to go down to the dungeons to serve detention for using Muggle duelling against Malfoy.

As she followed her Head of House, she could feel all the eyes of every other student on her. News always travelled fast at Hogwarts, she should have known to expect this, but it didn't stop her from feeling dirty, tainted and unworthy.

Ginny went into the dungeon without complaint as she let her back collapse against the wall. She didn't care what happened to her here now. She deserved whatever was thrown at her.

In reality, she deserved much worse than they could throw at her.

She was not left alone with her thoughts for long, because without food, water and with so little sleep, her body soon gave in to exhaustion and crashed to the cold floor.

Ginny kept to herself on Monday and well into Tuesday and Wednesday. Not raising her head or answering back as the whispers and stares continued. She was used to tuning them out now and it was even more important than ever that she keep these whispers at bay. She went to lessons, sat, took notes, ate and then headed straight up to her dorm. She avoided eating at busy times and spent no time in the common room. Lying under her covers, fighting back the tears, ignoring the calls of her friends seemed to be the only solution.

It wasn't just the whispers and the stares in the common room that she wanted to avoid. She had almost got to a stage where she could deal with people talking about her and the accusing looks. She was used to these. It was the fact that the reasons for these whispers and looks were all true. It was hard enough to get those looks from anyone but unbearable from friends. She could not bear to see those looks on the other Gryffindors and on the members of the D.A. The looks from Neville and Luna were so painful that she all but ran away from them each time she saw them.

Demelza had to literally drag her down from the dorm on Wednesday to the common room. Then once there the friendly bullying of the other Gryffindor was enforced as they told her she was going to the D.A. meeting. After a good half an hour of debate, she gave in; they were clearly not going to take 'no' for an answer.

Ginny let Neville take the lead in the D.A meeting once she got up to the Room of Requirement even taking a back seat in the discussion to organise a distraction as they conducted a raid on the Headmaster's office. This time however, there were no complaints as Neville explained that he would be in the office with Ginny and Luna.

She wasn't sure why this was the case. Demelza in particular in the past, had begged her to stay out of trouble. Maybe they were more worried about her than they were letting on. Maybe they were letting her do something that could cause trouble to provoke her into fighting. Because going into the headmaster's office was not something that could be seen as safe and would no doubt cause trouble.

It was exactly the type of thing they had been trying to stop her from doing.

Ginny sat back, in one corner, dull awareness sinking through as if the light had been turned on in her dungeon. They were all looking at her, and they were worried. The only question was were those looks of worry for her sanity, or more likely, were those looks of worry because she might turn on them?

If she could set out Slytherin's monster once, what was to say that she would not do it again?

As the meeting ended and the group started to head out, Ginny made the unusual move of running to the door. It was Neville who caught her arm though as she went to follow them, stopping her.

She should have known to expect this. She guessed that she was lucky that she had had three days to be her self pitying self. She was going to have to face the truth and the accusations, sooner rather than later. And just like she knew to expect this, she knew that she was not going to find a way to get out of this either.

"Ginny," Neville finally said as he led her to the cushions.

She gave in and tucked herself together, hugging her knees into her chest and holding on tightly to them as if they offered her protection and stopped her from completely falling apart. Maybe if she physically held herself together tightly she wouldn't collapse in other ways too. She needed some kind of help to get through this especially as she could feel tears welling in her eyes. She was nowhere near ready for this yet. She couldn't bear to see those accusing looks in Neville's or Luna's eyes.

Ginny focused on the things she could before she even attempted to answer. If she could breathe properly then maybe, just maybe, she would be able to talk. She took long deep breaths, controlled and slow, and only after they felt right and she felt that she would not dissolve into tears did she even attempt to talk.

"Yeah?"

Neville spoke in a calm and steady voice, yet it was strong and powerful at the same time. "Is it true?"

She just nodded her head, unable to say the words.

"Well, it doesn't matter." Neville spoke in a confident voice. "It wasn't your fault." Ginny shook her head but he ignored her as he continued. "I know you, Ginny, and whatever happened, however it happened, it wasn't your fault. That's not you, Ginny."

"_I _was stupid enough to write in that damn book, _that_ book that let it out, _I _killed the roosters, _I_ wrote on the wall; _I _did it all," she whispered. "It was _my_ fault."

Luna took Ginny's shaking hand in hers. "Even the best witches and wizards can be prone to acts of stupidly, it does not effect who you are now and that is a powerful witch."

"A powerful witch who's going to help us get that sword on Monday." Neville wrapped his arm round her shoulders. "There's not an evil bone in your body. And Ginny, you are many things, some things better than others but not one of those things is stupid and we need you. The D.A. can't fight this war without you so we need you out of this slump and firing back on all cylinders, okay?"

"I'm not..." She started.

"We're not taking 'no' for an answer here, Ginny." He grinned at her. "It's in the past and we don't care what happened. We know who you are and we want that Ginny back. We'll help you all we can but you are coming back to us, fighting, helping us win this, okay?"

"Okay," she nodded meekly.

In the next few days things started to return, ever so gradually, to normal. The one good thing about Hogwarts this year was that so much was happening that even stories of the Chamber of Secrets did not hang around the gossip mills for long. With students under attack daily, events from six years ago were not of great importance. And it was not just that, she was busy and that took up her time, not letting her dwell in self pity, not that Neville, Luna or anyone else was letting her do that anyway. Time not spent in lessons was spent watching the Headmaster's office, password watching, checking for any changes Professor Snape might have made to it, as well as looking for anything that may stop the plans from going ahead.

On Monday everything was ready to go. Three diversions were in place and Ginny's hair had been changed to brown again. It was with the first optimistic mood she'd had all week that Ginny met the other two at the end of the seventh floor corridor armed with Headless Hats and Slytherin robes. After all, they had already got away with this when they had got the cards and if anything, they were better prepared now.

Surely she had already survived the worst that could be thrown at her this week.

As planned, Ginny whispered the password of 'spinners' and the three of them ran up the moving staircase, only pausing when they reached the top.

"There it is," Ginny whispered.

In the centre of the room, just behind the large oak desk, next to the portrait of Dumbledore, there it was. Ginny let her eyes fall on the portrait of their former headmaster, who was sleeping. She was tempted to wake him, ask him, how he could have let this happen, but they had more important things to do right now than to get answers that would not help them anyway. She looked briefly at Neville and Luna before turning her full attention back to the sword of Gryffindor.

The three of them stood in awe, a hushed silence falling over them; it was magnificent. The December sunlight beaming through the window was shining straight onto it making all the rubies in the handle glisten. The blade reflected the red, and it glowed. It was so much more than magnificent.

"Well let's get it and get out of here," Neville hissed.

"I do think that's an advisable idea, staying here for a sustained period of time would not be a wise move," Luna echoed Neville's thoughts.

Ginny made her way over and just as with Amycus Carrow's office door used a hair grip to pick at the lock on the case. For some reason she was calmer than when she had broken into Carrow's office. Hadn't they already done the hard part? And this was one of her areas of expertise. Within minutes she was successful, raising the sword of Gryffindor above her head briefly before turning to the exit and back to the Room of Requirement.

"Well done, Ginny." Neville said, in such an upbeat tone it was infectious as he took his hat off.

"That was quite spectacular, Ginny," Luna agreed.

"I just can't believe we've done it," triumph flooding her system.

"Room of Requirement and we're home and dry," Neville agreed, pulling his hat back on. "Let's get going."

Ginny wrapped the sword in her school blazer, trying to hide it from clear sight until they got out the office. She took her hat off briefly and shot them a grin. Luna took her own hat off and smiled back before quickly replacing it. This had really worked.

They crossed the room and headed straight for the stairs. She wasn't sure how, but now she had the sword; Harry would have it in days. She was going to do something to help Harry. It may take time but things were going to work out.

As soon as Ginny reached the stairs she stopped, frozen, as her Hat was removed with one swoop of a wand cast by the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Miss Weasley."


	10. The Forbidden Forest

Chapter Ten: The Forbidden Forest

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The sword was pulled from her hand as quickly as Snape had said her name, so that Ginny found herself grasping at thin air as she tried to keep hold of it. Mere seconds later Neville's and Luna's wands as well as her own were taken and caught in Snape's greasy hands. Likewise the three of them were guided back up to the office as if they were being forced. It was almost like they were puppets whose strings Snape controlled. Ginny found her body moving at a fast pace that she had no control of.

She turned her head round to quickly glare at Snape before she found it quickly twisted back to the front, leaving her eyes on the circular office wall. She could only hope that she had managed to convey all the hatred and disgust in that brief look that she had given Hogwarts' chief Death Eater and for one brief moment she wouldn't have minded the slimy Slytherin having access to her mind. She would love for that Death Eater to know the fine details of the disdain in which she held him, without having to shout them aloud and earn detention. Even Snape couldn't give her detention for her thoughts.

Not yet, anyway.

As she got further up the stairs, she realised that the former headmasters' portraits were now no longer feigning sleep. She could clearly see the blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore looking at her. She sent him a questioning look. She was longing to ask him questions, to shout at him about what his trust had led to. Briefly, a bitter satisfaction filled her body. At least Dumbledore would be able to see what his trust had led to.

"Miss Weasley," Snape said again as they reached the circular office.

"Professor," she spat with as much scorn in her voice as she could muster, as she spun round to face him.

She may not be able to do much to help her current situation but she could at least show the evil git the contempt that he deserved. Risking a glance at Neville's and Luna's faces she could see they clearly felt the same. If they were going to go down, they would go down fighting. There was no way she was going to give Snape any information that she didn't have to.

Turning back to look at him, she could see a mixture of fury and frustration on the Hogwarts head teacher's face although the strange thing was that despite the nature of their crimes, Snape did not look as angry as he had after the fatal Quidditch match earlier this year.

Maybe, just maybe, if she played this well she might not be in that much trouble. She might be able to talk all of them out of this; get things to work in their favour a bit.

Ginny forced herself to drop her mutinous glare as she adopted a composed face, a face that showed very little emotion except maybe innocent denial. The very face she had so often used on her mother to get out of trouble.

She was very prepared to play dumb and ignorant to the fact they may have broken the smallest of school rules.

"Is there a reason you have become a brunette?" he asked as he waved his wand to change the colour back to red.

"Fancied a change," she shrugged as she forced herself to smile at him, "but I'm happy to be a redhead again."

"The Slytherin robes," Snape sneered back at her as he gestured to her clothes, "Are you finally embracing your pure-blood roots?"

"Hardly." She could not keep the jeer out of her voice, but seeing Snape's eyes flare, she forced herself to adopt a plainer, bored tone. "Just thought I'd see if I looked good in green." She offered the headmaster a small shrug as she continued, "They _are_ the Harpies' colours."

She dared a glance up at Snape's face, risking the chance of making eye contact. Snape was glaring straight at her and not paying too much attention to either Neville or Luna. He clearly thought that she was the bigger threat right now. Ginny risked a closer look at Snape's face trying to second guess his emotions and possible actions towards her. The smile on Snape's cold face was clear. He was clearly enjoying himself.

"More dreams that won't come true, Miss Weasley. Just like those dreams you have concerning Undesirable Number One." Snape gloated as shock ran through Ginny. Was Snape really aware of her dreams of Harry? Had he looked that far into her mind or had he just guessed? Either way, it was not a good sign. If it was the latter, Snape knew her too well and it was the former that was cringe worthy. She didn't want even some of her closest friends knowing about her dreams. "But before we talk through unfulfilled dreams, are there any more comments you wish to make on your current appearance?"

"Not that I can think of," she forced herself to smile back at the headmaster.

Snape paused, looking her up and down once more, weighing his options for a final time. Ginny gulped; he was clearly about to pass sentence and despite her bravado, she was nervous, so nervous that she could feel the goose bumps forming on her skin and hear the pounding of her quick heart over the deafening silence that had filled the room.

"Good. Now that matter is concluded, let's move on to the more important discussion," Snape drawled, "What brings you, Longbottom and Miss Lovegood into my office?"

"A dare," Ginny spoke quickly while Neville nodded his head in agreement.

"A dare," Snape sneered, "just like when you set off several stupid pranks so that you were able to break into Amycus' office?" Ginny realised their mistakes even as Snape was talking. They should not have done a trial run since obviously that would put them on guard about possible other attempts to break into the Hogwarts Death Eaters' offices. "Did you not think that it would be at all suspicious to do that again? And yet you took such a risk, knowing we were already alert to these pranks for just a dare?"

"That's right," Neville agreed, stepping forward.

"I see," Snape stroked his wand as he patiently gained all the information he needed, "and whose idea was this dare?"

"Mine," Neville said before Ginny even had a chance to speak.

"I very much doubt that; you do not have the brains to accomplish any type of plan. I believe that this screams 'Weasley'. The Weasley brats may be delinquents but they are not brainless, Longbottom," Snape mocked. "However, that is really beside the point. Much more important is the reason you attempted to steal the sword of Gryffindor."

"Just part of the dare," Ginny shrugged, repeating the line that they were all going to stick to, "since we are Gryffindors we thought the sword should be in the tower instead of the snake's lair."

Just then the office door opened again and if it was at all possible Ginny's heart plummeted further. She hardly needed to see the Carrow siblings right now. Granted, the pair of them where no worse than Snape. In fact they were much tamer but for the fact that the pair of phoney Hogwarts professors were more eager to unleash the Unforgivables on their students.

Ginny felt a shudder run down her spine at the thought of being subjected to the Cruciatus curse again. Amycus Carrow really took delight in torturing her and she had yet to find an answer to the pain and that was even without thinking about what sick looks the pig faced bastard was going to give her.

"Ah, they are here," Amycus Carrow said as he walked into the office and saw the three of them standing in the centre of the room.

"We thought that would be the case after we looked in our own offices." Alecto Carrow continued her brother's train of thought. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the three Dumbledore's Army leaders in turn. "Have you found out why they were in your office? Looking for more cards?"

"Or even an historic sword," Amycus' lustful eyes fell on Ginny and Ginny was more than a little tempted to send the Death Eater back a two fingered salute. "What was the girl's excuse?"

Sense took over her natural instincts as another shiver ran down Ginny's spine and she forced herself to keep her mouth firmly shut. As much as she wanted to scream at the disguising Death Eater what a sick bastard he was, she knew it was in her best interests to stay quiet now. She needed to limit the amount of trouble that she was in, not add to it.

Snape spoke in a bored tone as he turned to his fellow death eaters and muttered, "A dare, apparently."

"Do you believe any of this, Severus?" Amycus Carrow asked, with clear doubt in his voice. "Do you want me to get the real reason out of her?" He stroked his wand. "The Cruciatus Curse is a weakness of hers."

"No, no, that will not be necessary," Snape purred as he lovingly stroked his own wand. "And I would like to hear all the lies first, in order to see how many things I have to punish them for. You see, I know exactly why they are here." Ginny looked up in shock, desperate to know how much Voldemort's right hand man already knew, hoping she had not given too much away. He _could_ not; he _must_ not know any more than he already did no matter what it would cost her to keep him out of her mind. She would not give Snape any further knowledge that he did not have already. "It is clear from the Weasley girl's useless mind that she was intending to steal the sword to give to Harry Potter. Looking into that worthless mind it is clear that the girl is in love." Ginny dropped her gaze instantly. "Are you aware that Harry Potter is Undesirable Number One?"

Ginny gulped but forced herself to answer in careful tones. "I believe that is what the Ministry and _Prophet_ are claiming."

"That is the case, Miss Weasley, and not just a claim," Snape sneered. "Potter is as worthless as I always knew he was and now, thanks to those fine institutions, the rest of Britain are aware of that fact too."

"So, does she know where Potter is? If she was going to give him the sword, she must know." Excitement was growing in his voice. "Where is he, Severus?"

Panic flooded through her. She knew that it was irrational, but she couldn't help feeling that she was about to give Harry away as both of the Carrow siblings turned to look at her with greedy looks in their eyes. As their eyes narrowed her heart quickened. She couldn't bear to be the person who gave Harry away and right now it didn't matter that she didn't know anything.

She kept her eyes looking down at the floor, hoping, no matter how futilely, that that would stop Snape having access to her mind. If only there could be a form of the Fidelius Charm to protect ones thoughts as well as ones locations.

"No, she is as clueless on that as with so many other things," Snape said and she could swear that a genuine smile crossed his lips for the briefest of moments. "She has no idea where Potter is."

Ginny chanced another glance upwards to see Amycus Carrow pouting. He looked like an overgrown child who had just broken his favourite toy and Ginny could tell that a two year old style tantrum would not be far off.

"I don't understand," Amycus looked truly confused. "If they don't know where he is, how were they going to get the sword to him?"

"I believe that is why I called the girl — called all three of them, in fact — clueless," Snape jeered and there was no doubt about Ginny's suspicions, he was smiling. "In fact, with these brains leading the little rebellion, I doubt that we have anything to worry about."

"Good." Alecto laughed, a laugh that was echoed by her brother with his pig-like tones. "So what are we going to do about our little crime of breaking and entering?"

Ginny gulped, once again attempting to push any fears into the pit of her stomach. She was a Gryffindor and the key quality to Gryffindors was bravery. She was going to fight this face on and not run away like a small child. She could handle whatever they wanted to throw at her. She'd cope, just like everyone else fighting this war was, because despite everything they did to her, she was still safe. She did not have a massive reward hanging over her head in return for her death.

They were not going to hurt a pure-blood that much; that went against their beliefs.

"Well, we have breaking into the office, lying to the headmaster, stealing of Slytherin robes and using Weasley products. I think a week's worth of detention each would be fair," Snape mused. "Yes, seven nights of detention will fit nicely."

"Yes, yes," Alecto agreed. "Seven nights of the Cruciatus Curse."

Ginny could feel her whole body shaking and she was unable to do anything about it. While she may have started to build up a level of resistance to the Cruciatus Curse and not suffer as she had done in that first lesson, she doubted that resistance would hold if she was subjected to Snape performing that curse for hours at a time, seven nights running.

Maybe the best things she could hope for was to pray that she would just black out and end in the hospital wing.

"No, no, I was thinking about something more dangerous and more painful; something that may lead to several nights in the hospital wing. Seven nights in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid, I think," Snape mused. "Yes, seven nights in the forest."

"What?" Amycus asked in amazement.

"You do not think it is suitable? Have you spoken to Dolores Umbridge recently? The forest can be quite disturbing." Snape turned his attention back to Ginny, Luna and Neville. "The detentions will start tomorrow night. Be at the entrance for six o'clock in the evening, sharp. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Professor," the three voices answered.

"You are all dismissed, go back to your common rooms," Snape said as he gave them back their wands.

They headed back to the common room without talking to each other. They didn't need to dwell on their failure, especially when they had been so close, and Ginny didn't want to think about the week's worth of detentions in the forest.

The Forbidden Forest was not the place it had been in previous years. As well as the centaurs now running riot there, there were large man-eating spiders that had taken over huge parts of it as well as other creatures that would be fit to study in their old Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons when Lupin was teaching them. Even Hagrid, who usually dismissed dangerous creatures as just high spirited, had stopped taking his classes in there for safety reasons.

Lessons on Tuesday sped up, almost as if someone knew she was dreading the trip to the forest and was playing with the time and before she knew it, the lessons had ended. Ginny quickly forced down an early dinner before taking her bag back up to her dorm room. Quickly and without much thought she changed into jeans, a jumper and an old pair of trainers. Pulling on her cloak and pocketing her wand, she caught her reflection in the mirror. With the exception of her hair, she was wearing clothing that would help her blend very quickly into the forest should she have to. She frowned at her hair — red was such an obvious colour — before pulling out a black beanie hat to cover her main distinctive feature. At six o'clock she stood in the entrance with Neville and Luna while Snape watched over them.

Glancing out at the dark forest, she shot Neville and Luna a nervous smile. They were going to be fine. Things may not be easy but she could handle the forest, they all could. Maybe she could even handle it better after what she had already suffered this year. It could not be any worse than the silence of the dungeons and it definitely could not be worse than performing the Cruciatus Curse on Luna.

Ginny felt her spirits rise as she saw the large figure of Hagrid approaching them. There was something about the Hogwarts game keeper that was very reassuring. The reassuring feeling grew stronger as he smiled at the three D.A. leaders, a smile that soon faded into a frown as Hagrid saw Snape.

"All right, Ginny, Neville, Luna," Hagrid said as he met them with a forced grin.

"Hi, Hagrid," Ginny replied and her greeting was echoed by the other two.

Hagrid took a couple of steps nearer to them, pulling a large crossbow off his back from where it had been held in a sling.

"Here," Hagrid said as he offered Neville a crossbow.

"He has a wand, he won't need that," Snape interjected, taking the crossbow out of Neville's hands. "I'll be back in the morning and don't you think just because I will not be entering the forest myself that I will not be watching."

"Right then," said Hagrid, "Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. The forest ain't the same no more. Follow me."

Hagrid led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earthen track that disappeared into the thick black trees.

"Over there, look at that," said Hagrid as the three of them looked in the direction he was pointing, "See that silvery stuff shinin' on the ground? Tha's unicorn blood. There's a' least one unicorn in there bin hurt real bad by summat. They're disappearin' all ter time now. We're gonna find the poor things an' put 'em out of their misery." He looked at the three of them and then at the path. "So it's gonna be me an' Ginny go one way an' Neville an' Luna go the other. Now, if any of us finds any hurt unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? An' I'll do what needs doin'. If anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh — so, be careful — let's go."

The forest was black and silent. A little way into it they reached a fork in the earthen path and Ginny and Hagrid took the left path while Neville and Luna took the right.

They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. In those moments, Ginny could see Hagrid's face; a face that looked older than she had ever seen it and her forehead was creased with worry lines.

They walked past a mossy tree stump. Ginny could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.

A shudder ran down Ginny's spine which she was sure had nothing to do with the cold December night time weather. The Forbidden Forest didn't feel the same but then none of Hogwarts felt the same anymore. Why should the forest be any different? She wrapped her arms round her stomach, fighting back the feeling of apprehension as she walked on.

"You all right, Ginny?" Hagrid whispered breaking the silence but before she even had a chance to reply, they both heard a strange noise. "GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"

Hagrid seized Ginny and hoisted her off the path behind a large oak tree. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire. Something was slithering over the dead leaves on the ground. Ginny could feel her heart pounding so hard it was almost as if her very life depended on the quick and frantic beats of it to survive. She tried to calm herself down, taking a couple of long, slow, deep breaths as Hagrid squinted up the dark snow coated path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.

"Knew it," he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."

"There are some things in the castle that shouldn't be there either," Ginny muttered back in reply.

Hagrid looked down at her again. "You all right, Ginny? Yer very quiet."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied automatically with the answer she had given to that question all year, despite however she might actually be feeling.

"Yer mum's worried, yer know. Never seen her like this," Hagrid told her. "She's always askin' at meetin's how yer holding up. It ain't easy watchin' them target yer from afar, with nothin' she can do about it. It's even 'arder when yer know that yer letting them target yer too." Ginny hung her head, suitably ashamed. "We all want to do summat, but there's no point doin' things just for the sake of it."

"I know," she muttered.

Hagrid smiled down at her, happy that he seemed to have made his point. "So why did yer go for the sword?"

"We wanted to get it to Harry." She looked around. "Dumbledore had willed it to him, so it must be important."

Hagrid dropped his voice. "Do yer know where he is?"

"No," she admitted, "I was going to worry about that later."

They stood still for a moment in absolute silence. Not moving, just looking into each others eyes as if the information could be shared between brown and black without the need for words. It must have worked somehow, too, as Hagrid sent her a pitying look before placing his hand on her shoulder blade as he guided her on.

"E'll be alright, Ginny," Hagrid said sensing the worry in her tone. "Born survivor, Harry, an' I recon 'e's gonna come back fer yer, quite looking forward to finishing this all off and going to yer wedding in a few years. Not seen a witch an' wizard more suited fer each other since James an' Lily then yer and Harry."

Ginny found herself wishing that people didn't have to keep bringing this up. Even if she now knew that her denial of the fact that she may just have been falling in love was a lie. She couldn't let herself get her hopes up for anything these days, especially not about anything concerning Harry.

"It was just a few months, Hagrid, and you don't get love out of a few months," Ginny said softly, "but I hope you're right, I hope he's going to get out of this okay and then we'll see what happens next."

Ginny took a couple of steps forward so she could be walking ahead of Hagrid. She was not sure she could continue this conversation which could lead into very dangerous territory and get her to admit to feelings that she didn't even want to admit to herself yet. She wanted to be alone and no one was going to stop her.

The shade of the trees directed her route as she kept walking aimlessly. She wrapped her arms around her as she walked not holding her wand up as she should, a chill filling her insides. Her arms provided a protection from both the cool air on the outside and the sense of dread that she was fighting against inside herself.

The rest of the detention went on without anything remotely exciting happening and at two o'clock in the morning she met Luna and Neville at the edge of the forest. The three of them headed into the castle and back to their respective towers and dorms. It was nearly three in the morning when Ginny finally settled into her bed for another night of restless sleep.

At seven the next morning, feeling more than a little tired, she got out of bed. She dressed in a daze only giving half answers to Demelza's questions before heading down to breakfast.

Once in the Great Hall, Ginny forced down a couple of pieces of toast and a mug of coffee as she watched the post owls arriving. It took her a while to see Errol and Fred's owl Tudgay (named after the Puddlemere United Chaser) flying toward her through the masses of owls that now arrived at breakfast.

She let the pair of owls pick at toast as she removed each of the letters from their legs.

_Ginny,_

_We have received the letter from your headmaster and, while we love you and will support you in anything you do, we urge you to be careful. I couldn't bear to hear that my baby, my little girl, has been hurt. We have suffered so much already, just keep your head down, please, Ginny._

_Your mother has taken ill. She is so worried over Ron that her health has taken a battering. There is still no improvement there. We had thought that things would have progressed one way or another but we are all taking faith in the unknown. Business with Fred and George is booming and both Charlie and Bill are doing well._

_Once again, we love you. Please look after yourself, my little princess. And we really, really can't wait til you get safely home to us at Christmas. _

_We all love and miss you,_

_All my love,  
_

_Dad_

The familiar wave of guilt hit her. She knew her actions were increasing her parents' worries and they already had too much to worry about such as what Ron, Hermione and Harry were doing and most of her other brothers fighting in open warfare. She knew they were counting on her to keep safe at school. She also knew that she should calm down her actions, she should ease their worries but she could not just sit in lessons and act like a good little girl while she did nothing.

She had to force herself to open Fred's letter, it was much easier to fight all this when she wasn't reminded of the pain it might be causing everyone at The Burrow and if Fred had taken the unusual step of writing to her to discourage trouble making, it must be bad. Not that she should have expected any less after Snape had written home after the trip into the Headmaster's office.

_Hey, Spitfire,_

_Your new antics have reached the wider world; even people just coming into the shop have mentioned it. Good show. Of course that means Mum is flipping. Remember the toffee incident! That will look like canaries to you but we have your back. We couldn't live without our Spitfire, so don't let anyone take her away from us._

_We look forward to seeing you a few weeks. _

_Look after yourself, Ginny._

_Love,  
_

_Fred_

Ginny pocketed her post before heading up for Wednesday's lessons. She didn't want to focus on the letters for too long. She didn't need a reminder of how much this year was the dogs. The rest of the week was quiet and Ginny did her lessons and detentions without complaint. The least she could do was not worry her parents by giving them any further news of her being in trouble while she was still serving detentions so she reluctantly bowed to the D.A. pressure by keeping a low profile.

As always the Carrow siblings targeted her in lessons, Amycus having great amusement at placing her under the Imperius Curse. His amusement turned to disgust as she managed to fight against the pure-blood sentiments that he wished her to utter. While Alecto Carrow had started dissecting Harry's family tree, especially his maternal line to explain exactly why the lack of proper blood status had led to him becoming Undesirable Number One. The detentions were long and more than a little worrying as she listened carefully for noise but they caused no more pain than a couple of cuts, even more embarrassing gasps and screams at the sights in the forest and some more worry lines etched across her face. In fact if she hadn't been so tired because of them she would have coped reasonably well.

The D.A. meeting on Saturday was very subdued. They hadn't expected to get caught in the way that they had and they knew that they were suffering for their actions both in and out of lessons. Temporarily defeated they decided to go back to the simple measure of writing graffiti on the school walls and spell practice in the Room of Requirement while they came up with further plans that might work and still avoid detection.

Ginny was more than a little relieved when it was Monday night. Maybe tomorrow she would finally be able to get some sleep. She might even be able to hack into the backlog of homework she now had forming after spending all her time in the forest, lessons or Room of Requirement. It would be good to be able to rebuild her energy before they tackled their next offensive.

Again, she met Hagrid, Neville and Luna at the entrance to the castle. This time as she went down to the forest she was relieved as Hagrid explained that she would be paired with Neville in the forest. On their previous detentions Hagrid had usually chosen to partner with either herself or Luna, and Ginny had found the nights that she had walked with Neville much easier. Not that the forest itself had been any safer, it was just that she had an understanding with Neville; she was an equal with him and he didn't pressure her to answer questions. In so many ways this year Neville was becoming her rock.

The pair of Gryffindors trudged through the snow, making sure to keep their wands raised as they looked for any hurt unicorns occasionally fighting back the odd yawn. Neville was clearly as tired as she and that was making it even harder to stay alert to any of the creatures in the forest that would like the taste of human blood.

She turned and shot him a smile, "Not much longer, Neville."

"Yeah, and then we go back to our quiet lives," Neville joked as he smiled back at her.

"Baa," she found herself actually laughing as she took a couple more steps forward, "I've heard that quiet lives are very much overrated."

Neville laughed as he paused to stretch. "Be nice to try it for a while."

"Gee, Nev, you can't quit on me for the quiet life, you'd get bored after this year of, hmm, adventure." Ginny offered in a joking fashion as she bent down to examine what looked to be the silvery colour of unicorn blood and her tone quickly changed. "Looks like another one's been hurt."

Neville squinted into the dark path. "Think it must have gone now." He sighed as he kept looking back down the path and she continued to look at the blood. "SHIT! Ginny, Run!"

"What?!"

But she didn't need Neville to give her an answer. She turned around quickly to see a spider emerging near her from the dark. A huge, monstrous spider which was the size of her dad's old car was just feet away. In fact, if the spider had wanted to, the huge thing could reach her with just one reach of its giant legs.

"SHIT!" she shouted as she spun on her heels to run.

Shouting had not been a good idea as it had alerted the beast to the human prey so nearby. Just as she started to move she felt a strong crushing grip round her right leg that cracked as Neville caught her hand and pulled her out of the beast's grip.

She was aware of Neville raising his wand as, uneasy on the snow-coated ground and her possibly broken leg, she slipped and everything went black as her head slammed onto the path.


	11. Waking Up

Chapter Eleven: Waking Up

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

Ginny felt more than a little groggy when she started to come round the next morning. Her head was still spinning and there was that dull pounding that was still present. Worse than that was her annoyance with the words that someone in the room was whispering; they were making very little sense to her right now. She hated being left out of the loop, so to speak. She did not need to be babied or mollycoddled. She wanted to understand what was being talked about, she deserved that at the very least but it all just sounded like nonsense and all the snippets of vague conversations that she could remember from last night made even less sense.

She had a dull memory, or more likely some bizarre from of dream, of Snape checking in on her in the dead of night. No doubt he planned to report more of her acts of misdemeanour to her parents. This would definitely increase her guilt, her parents' worry and surely incur more punishments, as hard as she tried, she couldn't remember what she had done wrong in the last week.

She must have hit her head harder than she thought last night, if she was imagining that there was even the smallest possibility that Snape, after everything he had done, could be checking on her welfare.

It made her head hurt just to think about it. She had to stop thinking; she had to at least open her eyes and concentrate of some concrete things instead of thoughts that made her head hurt.

With an effort, she let her eyes flutter open. It took a while for her surroundings to come into focus and to stop being a mess of colours. She needed to focus on just the little things in the room so she could get her head slowly clicking back into gear or even just work out exactly where she was. She concentrated on things like the white bedding and the old wooden desk, the typical hallmarks of this very room that she knew all too well. After all, she had visited this room so often at Hogwarts that even without the Hogwarts nurse now approaching her, it was easy to make out that she was in the hospital wing. If only other things could be that easy to work out, given a bit of time to focus.

Although she still struggled to work out how she had ended up here, she was pretty sure it would not be the usual answer that she had fallen off her broom. She wasn't allowed her broom anymore. A hammer blow hit her heart as if attempting to shatter it in two as she woke to reality. She was in the Death Eater led Hogwarts and the physical pain was nothing compared to what she was about to re-enter. The days of a couple of potions making her feel better were long gone.

Not that Madam Pomfrey's potions had ever worked that well on her if they concerned things other than fixing bones.

"There you go," Madam Pomfrey said as she handed over a potion. "You take that," she added before muttering in a voice that despite its low nature was still clear.

"Sending them into the forest, and this year, too! It's almost like they are trying to get them killed. And I thought things could not get worse at this school." She paused before speaking again in a louder tone, "Drink your potion."

Ginny eyed the liquid she'd been handed. She may not have been allowed in on Order of the Phoenix meetings but she knew enough about them through Extendable Ears and the like. Mad Eye Moody may be gone and Madam Pomfrey may be on their side, but she knew what to do. She was not going to willingly drink whatever she was given at Hogwarts this year.

After all, the Hogwarts chief Death Eater was a potion master.

"What is it?"

"Something for your head, you hit it quite hard last night. I fixed your leg in a trifle but you have been unconscious for some time so you should really drink that potion." Ginny studied the concoction again; at least it wasn't colourless. That was a good sign. Surely she could trust Madam Pomfrey. She felt bad even to be doubting her now. Madam Pomfrey had fixed her with that stare, a stare which soon disappeared as soon as Ginny swallowed the contents of the small bottle. "Mr Longbottom and Miss Lovegood have been quite concerned."

"Where are they now?" She noted the urgency in her tone of voice.

She had no idea where they were and she didn't like that feeling at all.

It wasn't like any of her friends to leave her this year, especially if she was lying in the hospital wing, especially Neville or Luna. It was almost an unspoken rule that none of them would leave the others. Even more so in her case with the way that they were watching over her and her stupid impulses. To find them anywhere but at her side was more than a little unnerving.

What had happened?

Surely it wasn't Neville's or Luna's decision to leave her.

What had the Hogwarts Death Eaters done to them?

"Professors McGonagall and Flitwick insisted that they go to their lessons," the elderly witch said as Ginny felt her body relax. They were okay and the Hogwarts nurse tutted again, "We can't have any more punishments handed out."

Ginny choose to ignore this comment. She hardly needed a lecture on what the punishments at Hogwarts were like; she knew the details of them far too personally. Instead she needed to focus on what she didn't know. "How long have I been out?"

"Thirteen hours, roughly. I could have used that potion sooner but it would have meant waking you and I thought you needed some rest. If you woke naturally I was going to give you a potion for a dreamless sleep but you didn't come round to need it in the end." She picked up another phial. "You can still take the Dreamless Sleep Potion, if you want it. I guess your dreams aren't too restful these days."

"Thank you," Ginny said, choosing to ignore this comment as well. She was not going to talk to anyone about the nature of her dreams. No matter how bad they got they were her only way of seeing Harry and she didn't want to lose that even if those very dreams tormented her, "but no, thank you."

Madam Pomfrey studied her face, a small frown creasing her forehead. "You should get some more sleep, Miss Weasley; you look like you need your rest." She held her hand up to stop Ginny interrupting her. "Mr Longbottom and Miss Lovegood will be up at the end of the school day and not before. You have a few more hours to get some rest first. Do you want another potion?"

"No," she spoke quickly before adding the, "no, thank you."

The nurse made to turn away and head back to her small office but before she had taken even a single step, she stopped and turned back, "Ginny, people are worried. You need to take better care of yourself. It's not just Quidditch injuries you're coming up here with any more. Dark magic will inflict scars that can last long after the spell has been cast and not all of those scars can be healed."

Ginny let herself sink further down into her bed.

She was sick of hearing those words--words of concern or even worse words that would guilt her into behaving as she should. She was going to behave like she wanted, not like the little girl they thought that she should be. In any case, why was everyone under the delusion that she was going to be a good girl and just behave and go to lessons?

That she would happily sit learning about love potions when the world was at war?

Or that she would care about plants when her family where all fighting?

That she would spend hours learning how to conjure water while Harry's life was at risk?

She was going to fight, she was always going to fight this.

Hell, she may be under age but she had already seen more, done more and been in more battles than people twice her age. She knew perfectly well what she was risking and how it may end, but that didn't change a thing. She was in this fight. She'd earned that right, more so than so many others who didn't have people trying to guilt them out of it.

She just wished they would learn to accept this so she would stop having to feel guilty for what she was going to do anyway.

The next few hours passed exceptionally slowly. Despite what she felt, it didn't stop her brain interfering with her heart. Damn those stupid irrational emotions. More guilty feelings filled every bone in her body as the hours passed before she let herself collapse into exhaustion. Not thinking, just sleeping and being dead to the world at least helped a little.

"Ginny," Luna whispered as Ginny felt herself slowly waking.

Her lifeline was here. The two sides that helped her stand up and fight. She was finally going to work out what had to happen so she could issue her next blow. If the Death Eaters could send slammers into her heart, she could send them back into their organisation.

"Let her sleep, Luna," Neville continued in a low voice. "She needs it, it's not like she's letting herself get any otherwise. Didn't you hear what Elizabeth was saying the other day?"

Ginny suppressed a sigh. Her roommates had obviously gone further than lecturing her and trying to get her to return to normal. She knew that she was hardly having the same relationship with her Gryffindor friends this year, there were far more important things to be interested in than mundane school talk but to go out of the way to talk to Neville was hitting below the belt. What happened in that dorm room should stay there. It's not like last year when all they had to gossip about and whisper over was how she had gushed over Harry. Yet they had stayed responsibly quiet then and understood the dorm room rule then, so why should they share her secrets now?

"It's only natural for her to dream about Harry." Luna spoke in her sing song voice. "Harry and Ginny are soul mates and we have all been of the opinion for quite some time that those other girls are gossips."

"That may be, Luna," Neville sounded resigned, almost weary, "but we can't keep throwing things at her. She's exhausted, more so than either of us. Our dreams aren't haunted with nightmares and distant promises. Let her get some sleep."

"I'm not asleep, Neville," Ginny slowly opened her eyes, "just trying to stop Pomfrey coming over again."

Neville's brown eyes were full with worry and his voice even shook a little as he spoke, "You okay, Ginny?"

"Yeah." She forced her familiar tight smile, that no matter how many times she used it felt alien to her, back at her friend. "I'm fine. So are you going to tell me what happened last night?"

Neville shrugged as he always did when he downplayed his role in something. "Not much to explain really: a giant spider attacked you, grabbed your leg, broke it and then you fell on the ground and knocked yourself out." Neville smiled at her. "Not your finest hour."

She felt her body relaxing and her smile felt much more genuine as she playfully swatted his arm, despite everything that must have happened she was grateful to see Neville yet again. And it wasn't just that he had helped save her again, it was how he was keeping it light-hearted. There was already too much tension to add to it. "If you say so."

Neville's smile grew. "I do."

"Okay, okay." Ginny laughed a laugh that was echoed by her two closest friends. More than a small part of her was so grateful that despite everything, they could still laugh. She owed the pair of them so much. "Whatever you say." Her tone changed again and she felt that note of urgency return. "So what happened next?"

"As I said, nothing much, nothing anyone else wouldn't have done." Neville shrugged again before continuing. "Stunned the spider, sent sparks up for Hagrid and he carried you back to the castle. It wasn't much really."

"Neville, you were magnificent!" Luna said.

Neville's face had flushed a clear Gryffindor red. "Not really."

Ginny found herself genuinely smiling and her smile had grown and used every part of her face to express it. Neville was becoming so much more than her rock, he was becoming a hero. "I'm with Luna here."

"You were knocked out." Neville was still smiling. "How can you make a comment?"

"Because I trust Luna and if she says you were magnificent then you were."

"When can we get you out of here?" Neville said as he quickly attempted to change the subject and switch the attention off of him. "We need you back at the D.A."

Thankfully, Madam Pomfrey let her out of the hospital wing later that day. Ginny went back into her normal routine very quickly, ignoring her roommates' and former friends' prattle over marks, classes and other usual information. Meetings of the D.A. now included sprints up to the Room of Requirement to listen to Potterwatch and the holding of her breath until she knew that there had been no change. The D.A itself played things quiet until the holidays but there were visible signs of wear and tear on each of its members; the Death Eaters' punishments were taking their toll. Other than some basic spell practice, they stuck to the low key tactics of graffiti and, if possible, releasing those chained up in detentions.

No one went and looked for trouble.

The next few days faded into each other as they passed quickly and Ginny barely noticed them slipping away and somehow she managed to get to the Christmas holidays without getting into any more trouble or scoring any more detentions. Even more remarkable, her temper stayed in check for nearly a month. Ignoring her lessons helped and even eased the pain she was feeling for longer periods of the day. If she let her mind tune out the mundane school tasks and, worse than those, the more spiteful actions of the Death Eaters and went along as if she was under an Imperius Curse, she could survive and keep a low profile responsibly well. Blocking out her reactions helped block out her pain but led to many concerned questions.

If it was not for the Room of Requirement, she could be seen as the model student.

It was late on the last Friday of term that the D.A. gathered in the Room of Requirement. It would only be a matter of hours until they were all safely on the Hogwarts Express and headed back home for some respite from the Hogwarts Death Eaters. This fact seemed to offer a level of both relief and fear. It would be wonderful to escape from the daily punishments that they were now enduring as a group, but at the same time there was the doubt about what would be awaiting them when they finally reached home.

Just like Hogwarts wasn't really Hogwarts any more, Ginny doubted that The Burrow would be the same either. This Christmas was going to be drastically different from any she had ever had there. At least while she was at Hogwarts she could delude herself into believing that things were right at home.

Then there were the reports of what was happening outside the school walls heard in the snippets of information that were breaking through the school's stone crevices. Just as before they had left for school, people were still disappearing but now it was at an alarming rate. As a group of anti-Voldemort supporters there was no guarantee that any of them would come back safely. Indeed a couple of her friends had been sending Ginny looks that expressed concern over her safety. More than a couple wondered whether they were about to lose one of the D.A. leaders.

Tension and nerves were mounting throughout the room. It was hard to believe from looking at her friends' faces that Ginny was amongst a group of teenagers, they looked so much older than that. Yet despite the nerves that were clearly flying around the room from each of the members, the meeting was somewhat uplifted.

Luna had managed to smuggle a copy of The Quibbler into the meeting. Their lifeline to the outside world, the news and support that they were not alone had been passed round and read so often in the last hour that the paper was falling apart. Ginny had drunk in every word as if those words would act like a potion to ease a broken heart and in a certain way they had--the eccentric editor of the newspaper had not only promised support to Harry but made it clear that he still believed him to be alive.

When the noise had finally died down in the room, Neville cleared his throat and addressed the assembled group.

"Well, I guess the first thing to say is, 'Let's have a good Christmas', 'cause you know as well as I do that people are dying. So enjoy a safe Christmas with your families, and don't waste any of that precious time with them." The confidence that had grown in Neville's voice was amazing. "Next, let's make sure we all get back here. It's not worth acting alone out there. There is time for bravery but acts of bravery that risk your own safety but will gain little and not help Harry are not worth it. We're going to need everyone and that bravery when we get to the final fight."

Neville nodded at Ginny to let her take over.

"Nev's right. No one knows more than me that Death Eaters will take great pleasure in hurting you for the smallest of things." She found herself massaging the scar on her hand as she spoke. "On the train we're really going to be out in the open. If they can stop it and pull people off on the way up here, they can do it on the way back. Let's not give them a reason to." There was no doubt that the looks in many of the eyes were that of concern but she ignored them as she continued her rallying cry. "We need to make sure we win this fight, and not just for Harry. We need to do this for ourselves, 'cause I can't live in a world like this. I never liked being told what to do by people who say they have my best interests at heart and I like it even less now."

At this, more than a few people let out a small laugh at those words and Ginny allowed herself to show a tight smile before quickly dropping it and continuing to speak.

"I will not live in a world like this but to fight against it is going to be hard and we have all been worn down, targeted. We need to come back strong and able to fight them."

"Be careful and come back for our first meeting next year," Luna spoke in a more serious and solemn tone than Ginny had ever heard before.

"In the meantime, if anything happens we'll use the coins, so keep checking them." Ginny forced herself to smile again. "Merry Christmas and we'll see you all next year."

People took even longer to leave the safety of the Room of Requirement than usual. Whispered conversations filled the air. It was safe to talk here and that couldn't be said about anywhere else.

This may be their only chance to say goodbye.

Ginny glanced around the room at people who were really savouring those last moments. Demelza and Ritchie were locked in a tight embrace and if possible even more intimately, Neville and Susan were touching hands as they gazed into each other's eyes.

She pulled away from the series of goodbyes. That small nagging feeling was back. The part of her gut, the part where she pushed all the emotion she wanted to hide from, was pulling her apart from the inside as that sense of longing, took over her. Where was her person to hold on to and tell her to take care and make it back to school okay? She really needed to get back home. It would not be the same as what she was missing right now. That part of her heart would still be empty but at least some of her heart would be feeling a little less so.

"Ginny."

"Hey, Demelza," she said turning to face her friend.

Demelza's smile disappeared almost as soon as it had appeared as she studied Ginny's face. "You okay?"

"Yeah" Ginny nodded automatically, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"I wish you'd stop giving us that lie and say how you actually feel." Demelza locked her gaze. "We are your friends, we would understand. We know that every time you say, 'I'm fine' you're lying. "

"I know that," she spoke in quiet voice. "It's just easier to say that I'm fine and then one day, I may actually believe that myself."

"It'll be okay, Ginny," she said as she pulled her into a hug. "Just make sure you don't do something stupid on the train, whatever happens. Make sure that we don't lose you to the Death Eaters. Make sure you come back, Ginny."

Ginny smiled and even forced a laugh. "I'll be back, you're all not going to get rid of me that easily."

Demelza smiled back at her. "That's the Ginny we know, not the one who parrots the 'I'm fine' line." Their eyes met again. "How are you, Ginny?"

"I'll be glad to get home for a while." She attempted to hide the sigh that wanted to escape from her. "I'm a bit worn down, I need to get my energy back to be ready to fight."

"And we'll do the same," Demelza's smile grew, "so we can be back fighting beside you."

Ginny returned her friend's smile. "You really are the best, Demelza."

Demelza's warm laugh echoed around the room, "And don't you ever forget that."

They all got to bed late that night, much too late for their early start on Saturday and the train journey back to King's Cross. Ginny's sleep was very much fragmented too. The dreams of Harry had returned and she woke more than a few times with the need to find him. It was almost as if he was calling her, willing her come and give him some much needed love and support. She could not fight the feeling that he wanted her by his side and it took all her willpower to stay in her bed, close her eyes and try to get some sleep and not undertake the impossible task of Apparating fruitlessly round the country trying to find him.

The next time Ginny woke she felt salty tears trickling down her face. Her dream that Harry was okay and she had him back was so real that it took a while to calm herself down.

This state of unknowing was killing her.

She managed to calm herself with a couple of long deep breaths.

At least over Christmas she might be able to get some more details out of Order members. And then there was the smallest hope that Ron would make contact over Christmas and she would be able to breathe again.

She headed down to breakfast with the other Gryffindor sixth years the next morning and chose to sit with them. She had to put up with Amy and Elizabeth's talk about boys but at least they didn't question her about the breakfast she was pretending to eat, which was a relief. As soon as breakfast was finished she headed down to the Hogsmeade station with Neville and Luna.

Hogsmeade station was filled with people who Ginny knew to be Death Eaters after her encounter in Hogsmeade earlier that year and Ginny could swear that there were Dementors nearby. It was almost as if they were waiting for an excuse to grab one of them. Neville wasted no time in grabbing his trunk. He clearly wanted to get out of that station as soon as possible. The urgency, however, seemed lost on Luna as she just gazed at the unmasked Death Eater with a dreamlike expression on her face.

Neville heaved his heavy trunk onto the train before turning back to Ginny. "Do you want a hand?"

"I think I can manage," she said as she pulled her own trunk up onto the train.

"I know that, but you don't have to, we can help, you know, Ginny." Neville jumped down from the train and grabbed the bottom of the trunk. "We can help."

Luna turned away from studying the platform to look at both Ginny and Neville. "I do believe that we are the strongest together."

"You know Luna's right. Luna's often right; we keep each other sane together." Neville smiled and glanced down at the trunk. "Not that you can't manage."

They worked in silence for a moment pulling the trunk onto the train and Ginny, not for the first time, thought it would have been a good idea to bewitch the trunks so they were feather light before they reached the station. It was just a shame she hadn't come up with this bright idea before she attempted to drag the heavy school trunk but then this year, at least, she had the excuse that she had more important things on her mind.

"I know, Nev," she said as she reached down from the train to help Luna with her trunk. "That's why we stick together."

Luna joined the other two on the train, hopping up after her trunk. "And why it is such an agreeable idea to keep using the coins."

Neville grabbed the handle ready to pull it down the train to a free compartment. "Whatever happens, we use the coins to call each other."

"Got it," Ginny said as she took the lead.

"So," Neville glanced around the train before continuing," if Harry shows up, you let us know."

Ginny looked briefly at her two friends, it wasn't even worth fighting these comments anymore.

"I will." She paused and turned round to face them directly. "And if you see him first?"

Luna just smiled at her. "That connection will be rekindled first with you, Ginny."

Ginny ignored this and pressed her point. "If you see him first…?"

"…We'll use the coins." Neville agreed.

The three of them found an empty compartment nearly at the end of the train. They soon settled into the journey and the Death Eaters on the station platform disappeared from their minds. Luna had pulled out a copy of the Quibbler but was currently frowning at the words. It was vastly usual for Luna to criticise her father's words. Ginny glanced over and on still seeing Harry's face on the front and the message to support him, she relaxed. Neville had obviously relaxed as well as he had started tending to a plant.

Ginny gazed out the window, letting things wash over her as she stared at the trees as they passed through the Scottish hillsides. It was good to know that they were finally going home and getting that much needed break.

However, just as she let herself think those words the train ground to a swift halt in the middle of the mountain scenery. Ginny's knees felt like lead as she thought she might collapse. Her chest was feeling tight as she glared out of the window. She knew only too well what had happened in September, the last time that the Hogwarts Express had stopped.

Only this time there were no Muggle-borns left on the train.

She heard a thudding down the corridor as she slowly reached for her wand.


	12. Back to the Burrow

Chapter Twelve: Back to the Burrow

The footstep grew louder and into a dull rhythm that could easily be associated with a death march. Occasionally there were stops as the doors flung open with loud bangs, before the noise of the steps increased again. Ginny's heart pounded even harder banging at her ribs in rhythm to the steps outside as if it was signalling her own death, as fear filled her entire body and she scrambled for her wand. There were no Muggle-borns left on this train, the Death Eaters had already seen to that.

They could only be hunting for someone who had caused the new regime trouble, just as they had done in hunting down so many Order of the Phoenix members. They were looking for someone they had deemed to be a blood traitor.

And she came from the biggest family of blood traitors that there was.

The biggest family of blood traitors that had strong connections with Harry Potter, Undesirable Number One.

Her mouth dried and she struggled to form breath as she tightened her grip on her wand. They were all blood traitors that had caused too much trouble. They had to want one of them. She could feel her body shaking as she let out little gasps of breaths. They were about to face Death Eaters again and she was not sure how she was going to come out of it.

She gulped, trying to regain some of her courage, she may be scared, hell she was terrified, but she was going to go down fighting.

Ginny glanced over at Neville and Luna who both had their wands raised. From the looks on their faces they were scared too, but ready.

The door flew open and without even thinking about what she was doing, Ginny found herself stepping forward. If they had come for her then fine, they could have her. They could hardly make her life much worse than it currently was. She had already lost so much, what more could they possibly take? If it was for her friends, well, hell, they would have to go through her first. She was more than willing to embrace the stupidity that often came with the brave Gryffindor nobility right now. The very thing she had watched Harry do so many times before.

"Names," a man's gruff voice demanded. "Your names!"

"We've been through this before and you've already taken, probably murdered, the Muggle-borns, there's nothing left for you to take," Ginny spat. "So why don't you just piss off."

"Ginny," Neville's voice whispered, "please just think first."

"Ah, the Weasley brat," the Death Eater said before turning back to the corridor.

"I've found the right compartment."

"Ginny," Neville spoke with more urgency as he pushed her behind him; he was obviously worried for her safety. "We've done nothing wrong, and we're all pure-bloods here, you can't take her."

"We happen to be looking for a pure-blood this time, although blood traitor should be a more appropriate term for her." He stepped aside as he spoke, letting several other of Voldemort's hooded cronies enter the room.

As before, they were outnumbered within a matter of just seconds but that did not change anything. They had fought before in this situation and would again. She felt both Neville and Luna at her sides as she fixed her wand on the central figure. Before she could even think of a spell to utter though, her wand, along with Neville's and Luna's had flown into the hands of a masked figure.

Instinct took over and she founded herself charging.

If she couldn't fight with her wand, she would fight the Muggle way.

She managed to throw a single hit before her hands were caught in the grasp of a particularly powerful Death Eater. She turned her head and stole a glance at both Neville and Luna, who had made similar moves and landed in Death Eaters' arms.

Ginny pulled her head back and spat, making sure to aim for the eye holes. "You bastards," she gritted.

"It really is time that you are made to behave like a good little pure-blood witch," oozed a somewhat familiar voice.

Ginny felt a shiver run down her spine, she had heard these words before in that disastrous trip to Hogsmeade. She felt herself gulp as she thought back to those Death Eaters' words before she forced herself to fight against it. She held her head up. Death Eaters may be sick bastards but that didn't mean that she was going to back down.

The leer was clear in his voice as the Death Eater continued, "You're not that unattractive a prospect even if you have polluted your body. And I could teach you to behave."

"Marcus, we don't have time," the Death Eater holding Luna spoke in a curt tone. "Let's just take what we came for and get out of here."

"Fine," he replied as he released Ginny's hands.

Ginny stared, disbelieving and frozen.

If they didn't want her then who did they want?

Why had they come into this compartment?

What had just happened?

Why would they want Luna?

Why hadn't they protected her?

Her mind was ticking over very slowly, forming thoughts that came in a muddled mess. She started to pull her hand back, in a final act of defiance, but once again found herself too slow.

A gloved hand smacked her straight across the cheek, knocking her off balance as she fell to the floor. A hard steel capped boot made contact with her stomach causing her eyes to water and pain to shoot straight down to her stomach.

"No blood traitor brat treats me like that." The same boot promptly made contact with her nose. "It's time you learn some manners."

"Ginny," Neville called as he broke free from the Death Eater's grip on him and hurried to her side.

Carefully Neville helped her back up into a sitting position. She was panting and each breath she took hurt. She was desperate to take fewer breaths to stop the pain. She wanted to take long deep ones but it was far too painful to draw from the lower reaches of her diaphragm, so she was forced to settle for a series of painful short sharp breaths instead. She could also feel the blood pouring down from her nose at an alarming rate. Her head was spinning but she was only dully aware of that and a dull throbbing pain as she watched as the Death Eaters took Luna.

"No!" Neville called as he got to his own feet.

"Step back, Longbottom, or I take Weasley, too." The lead Death Eater raised his wand and pointed it directly at Ginny.

Neville glanced between his two friends. His face was torn, pained. He clearly wanted to help both of them, but that was impossible. He did not know what to do, but something must have clicked. If he stepped back he was not going to lose both of them, but it would mean giving in to Death Eaters and letting them take Luna. He felt something that was far worse than the physical pain that Ginny was currently feeling; it was guilt.

He looked at Luna for a final time, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze before he ever so slowly backed away.

"Neville, I am positive that everything will work out well." Luna's voice showed none of the tension in the room. "Hogwarts needs you, both of you."

"Luna!" Ginny called through her blood-smeared lips. "You can't."

"I'm perfectly fine, Ginny," Luna said in a conversational fashion as if she was doing nothing other than discussing the weather even as she was being pulled out of the train car.

"You really should listen to Lovegood, she's going to be just fine." Their wands were thrown back at them before the door slammed shut.

"Neville," Ginny whispered as she made her way back to the wall for support. Even if she hadn't been in so much pain she doubted that she would be able to stand right now anyway. She needed something, probably someone, to hold onto. Her voice sounded like a strangled cry when she had enough breath to finally talk again. "Luna."

"I know," he said softly, almost defeated. "But we'll get her back, I promise. Whatever it takes, we're going to get her back."

Silence filled what seemed to be an eternity although it was probably not even a single minute.

Tears streamed down her face and she had no desire to stop them, even as they ran in tracks down from her cheeks. Whether they were from the throbbing pain in her stomach or over what had just happened, she wasn't sure. She didn't care. She didn't even take time to clean the blood that was now dripping down her face.

She had failed.

She had let them take Luna.

How could she explain this?

How could she cope without Luna?

How much must she keep losing?

Her head was in a daze as the door opened again. She became aware that Neville was talking to someone. It was obviously someone who was on their side as he appeared to be explaining what had just happened. Not that she could even bring herself to feel any relief that the Death Eaters hadn't returned; part of her wanted them back, wanted them to take her as well. She couldn't keep losing things. Maybe it would just be easier to lose herself, to go down fighting instead of barely making it through the fight, nursing heartbreaking injuries.

Hannah Abbot made her way over. "Ginny?" she whispered. "Can we look at your nose? I think I can clean it up."

With the help of the Patil twins, Hannah fixed all of her physical injuries within minutes. It was just a shame that the other scars could not be fixed so easily. That guilt was already eating away from her, and was going to stay for a long time. Neville held court with the other sixth and seventh years who had crammed into the small compartment but Ginny just pulled herself up to a seat. Barely listening to the D.A.'s plans and questions, she stared aimlessly out of the window, watching the countryside blend together as it hurried past. She just stared, even as it started to rain and the water washed down the windows, just like the tracks of tears on her own face.

There was nothing she could do now.

Before Ginny knew it the train was slowing again; she couldn't help the panic filling her body again. She didn't like the idea of the train stopping again. Her heart pounded and her whole body shook.

"It's King's Cross, Ginny," Neville said as he looked out the window to confirm their location.

"King's Cross," she repeated dully.

"Yeah, time to go; grab your trunk." Neville spoke softly but in a powerful tone. "I don't think it would be a good idea to hang around long."

"Yeah, good thinking," Ginny muttered as she reached for her own trunk.

Things on the wizarding side of the station were chaos. People were now very aware of what had happened to Luna and apart from a select few there was panic. What if there were Death Eaters here too? If they could take one student then they could take others too. There was a desperate rush for the barriers and more than a couple of people fell as from the tiny first years to the off age seventh years, students were desperate to see their friends and family without delay.

Ginny pushed her way through the barrier that led out to the Muggle section of King's Cross Station. She pulled her trunk behind her as she scanned the platform. She caught a glimpse of bright red and the tears she had been holding back started to escape her eyes.

There standing next to Neville's grandmother was her mum.

She felt her hands dropping her trunk without even thinking about it as she broke into a run. A run that was only broken as she reached her mum's arms. The salty tears that had started to trace their way down her face streamed uncontrollably as she buried her face.

Molly gently stroked her daughter's hair as Ginny let her tears fall, not caring where she was or who was watching her. Molly made soft noises as she slowly waited for her daughter's tears to ease.

"Ginny?" Worry was etched into each line on her mother's face and very clear in her voice was panic. "What's happened?"

"They, they, they…" Ginny tried to speak through her tears, "took," she managed before burying herself back in her mother's arms.

"Neville?" Molly questioned, as she studied her daughter's appearance.

Ginny was dully aware that blood still coated her clothes and some part of her knew that would not help with her mother's worry but she could deal with the aftermath of that later after they got back to The Burrow. Right now she felt lost, alone and hurt. Right now all she wanted was to be held and told everything was going to be okay. Right now, whether she protested that she was grown up or not, all she wanted was her mum.

"They took Luna," Neville said softly as he dropped both his and Ginny's trunks. "The Death Eaters came on the train and took her."

"And we couldn't stop them." Ginny used her arm to wipe her tears from her eyes as she broke the protective hold so she could look her mother in the eyes. She needed more than words to explain this. "We tried, we did try, Mum."

"I know you did," Molly kept a tight hold of Ginny as if she could keep the Death Eaters away from her child that way. "I know you did."

"My Luna," Xenophilius Lovegood said, catching hold of the conversation and coming over to them as quickly as if he had been summoned by their words or even expecting to hear them. "They took my Luna."

"I'm so sorry, sir, we tried," Neville insisted in a thick voice that was ringing with emotion.

"I have to go," Xenophilius replied promptly as if the words had not yet sunk in and continuing with everyday life would stop the truth from becoming reality, "lots of consulting to do."

"Xenophilius, if we can..." Molly started as she grabbed Ginny back into a hug and held her tighter. She was not going to let her go any time soon.

"I have to go," he mumbled, whipping his cloak behind him.

"Mum, we did try," Ginny insisted again as she turned to watch Luna's father. It was so important that they understood--that they knew they had not given in to Death Eaters. "We tried."

"I know, I know you did," Molly said again as she looked up and down the station, and Ginny felt her mother tighten her grip on her shoulder. She was nervous. "Now let's get you home."

Ginny found herself nodding. "See you later, Neville."

"See you soon, Ginny," Neville tried to smile, "And Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas," she said dryly.

She headed back to The Burrow and managed to evade her mother's questions. Thankfully, Molly didn't push the issue and let her disappear upstairs to her room. She was sure that this wouldn't last long but at the moment she was just grateful for what she had. No doubt the questions would come soon enough. She let herself sink into her bed and stare at the ceiling while awaiting the call from downstairs. When it came she quietly made her way down to dinner and a huge plate of food that was laid at her place.

"I want you to eat every bit," Molly said in a tone that Ginny knew from experience was pointless to argue with, "you've lost far too much weigh."

Ginny just nodded as she poked a couple of carrots onto her fork. The plate was huge; the vegetables alone would be enough for two people, without the large portion of chicken. This dinner was more than worthy of a Ron sized Christmas dinner. Ginny continued to look at the mass of food knowing, as if more evidence was needed, that this was a clear sign her mum was worried.

Molly fixed her daughter with a glare. "How are you, Ginny dear?"

"Fine," she caught her mother's look before looking back down at her plate, Molly Weasley was not going to swallow her daughter's 'I'm fine' response. She was going to need to tell at least a little of what was going on. "I'm a little tired, more than a little tired, I've not been sleeping too well and I guess that's making me a bit overly emotional, but I'm fine, Mum, I swear."

"After dinner, I want you to get a lie down," Molly instructed.

"Okay, Mum."

"And you eat it all," Molly said studying her daughter, frowning.

Maybe she would have been much happier if Ginny had pushed the fight. She knew that her mum was not used to seeing her headstrong daughter give in so easily.

"Okay, Mum."

"And then after your rest, we'll talk," Molly pressed her advantage.

"Okay, Mum."

After she had eaten the minimum amount that her mum would let her get away with, she headed straight back up to her room. She was tempted to give in and let her body sink into her bed and just relax, but she knew far too well there was no way that her mind would relax. It was still spinning too much. Pulling ink, quill and parchment out of her bag, she went to her desk.

_Dear Harry,_

_Merry Christmas. _

_It felt strange, not to write to you and wish you Merry Christmas. It will be even stranger not to have you here. I mean you've been with us all for Christmas for so long, you know you're the honorary Weasley here._

_Not that I think its going to be the real Weasley Christmas. Things are so different this year. It would nice to have one thing that you could hold onto in this chaos but nothing is the same now. And maybe that's right too._

_I guess other than wishing you Merry Christmas, is the big news that they took Luna. And I let them. I was big headed enough to think it was me they wanted but it was Luna. The Death Eaters just took her. We've no idea what is going to happen to her, I dread to think about that. And selfishly I don't know how I'm going to manage without her. She keeps me sane, stops me from really losing it. Why are they taking everyone I care about away from me? You can't keep throwing things at me and expecting me to cope. Damn! Don't I deserve one thing, one person to come through for me? So you better damn well come back, there's only so much a girl can cope with. So after you defeat him, you get your arse straight back here. Okay?_

_Other than that everyone else is okay, if not a little worn out. _

_Give my love to Ron and Hermione, and wish them Merry Christmas for me. Hope it won't be as cold for you as it looks to be here,_

_Love,  
_

_Ginny_

Before the ink had even dried on the parchment, she used her wand to set it on fire. Carefully she carried the flaming parchment to the window, letting go only as the fire got painfully close to her hand. And with that her hopes were washed away with the ashes and out the window. The same could not be said for her guilt, helplessness and pain which settled with her even as she rested onto her bed.

Ginny waited until the dead of night and well after she had heard the squeaky stair sound that gave the clue that her parents had finally headed upstairs to bed. Only then and when she was positive that it was safe, did she head down to the living room. Carefully, attempting to make no noise, she crossed the room and turned on the side light next to the Christmas tree. She briefly looked around the room; even the decorations showed that Christmas was not going to be the same this year. Just like everywhere else, The Burrow did not look or feel the same.

Swiftly she opened the small alcohol cabinet and pulled out almost a full bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky. Her eyes were transfixed on the liquid as she poured some into one of the smaller glasses. Without too much thought, only hoping that it would dull her pain, she placed it too her lips. A burning feeling touched her lips before the warm liquid filled her stomach giving her an odd feeling of satisfaction. Barely waiting for the shot to settle she poured herself another.

"Well, well, well." A voice drifted out of the dark kitchen making Ginny jump.

Her heart was pounding so fast against her chest it could be beating for several people, her body had tensed up and her hand had shot to her wand. Under age or not, she didn't care about the trace and what the current Ministry would do should she be found out, she would not be left defenceless. Her eyes narrowed on the door that joined the two rooms as she tried to make out who it could be.

As the red-haired man came into sharper focus she felt her body relax and lowered her wand. She wasn't going to get another Ministry letter for hexing her brother, it wasn't worth it and it may make her mum finally lose it. Especially when she was sure that she could think of some way to get her own back on them for surprising her life that and scaring her out her skin without magic, if she needed to.

"Merlin, Fred, what on earth are you playing at?" she hissed in dangerously low tones. "You keep this up and you're going to give me a heart attack." She continued to glare at him as she studied her older brother's appearance. "Where were you anyway? It's gone two."

"Just down at the pub," Fred replied with a slight shrug as he took two glasses out of the cabinet and called back to the kitchen, "Hey, George, get in here."

"Hang on, I'm just putting the charms back up," George's voice drifted in.

"Well hurry up, I wouldn't want you to miss this." Fred's voice was full of delight as he Accioed the Firewhisky bottle and Ginny's empty glass.

"What is it?" George asked as he made his way into the room.

"Our underage, baby, little sister." Ginny glared at him and considered raising her wand again as Fred poured a glass of Firewhisky. She may be underage but she was neither a baby or little. "Mum's delicate little angel…" She rankled at these words as Fred gave a full glass to his brother, "getting herself drunk."

"That's really bad form, Ginny," George said as he took the drink.

"My words exactly, dear brother." Fred grinned at his brother as he poured another glassful.

"Oh, please," Ginny choked, fighting back a laugh, "it's not like the pair of you reached seventeen without touching a drop of alcohol. I remember the Firewhisky being drunk in the Gryffindor common room on more than one occasion and that's without mentioning those times Bill and Charlie used to take the pair of you out."

"Oh, Ginny," Fred started, "still so young."

"Innocent."

"Naive."

"Pure."

"Simple."

"Get to your point sooner," she hissed.

Today she was not in the mood for their jokes, especially since she had finally started to enjoy wallowing in her self pity.

"If we are going to get the blame off mum for corrupting you…" Fred smiled at his brother.

"Then the very least we deserve," George continued, "is to join you in drinking in the first place."

"There's enough to go around," Fred handed back her refilled glass.

"Anything else is just bad form."

"Oh definitely poor form," Fred's grin had grown as he drank some of his own firewhisky. "And we've raised you better than that."

"Much better."

"Anyway, I'm glad you're up," Fred's tone had changed and become much more serious. "We wanted to talk to you."

"About?" Ginny had dropped her smile instantly; it was so rare that she had heard Fred speak so seriously.

"Well, you know Angelina's brother and his fiancée died, right?" Ginny just nodded and felt a jolt of pain hit her heart. Just as when she had heard the news about Angelina's brother, she could not help the feelings of guilt. Angelina was living through one of Ginny's own nightmares and as bad as it was she couldn't help thanking God it was not her going through it. "Well, Angelina asked me to go to the joint funeral, you know, for support. And the thing was that Sara's younger brother was there, Andrew. I think he's about your age. I'm pretty sure he said he was a sixth year. Anyway, that got me to thinking about you and all your antics at school and the fact that you're almost at Death Eater Central."

Ginny gulped trying to push all the guilty feelings that had resurfaced into the pit of her stomach. "They're not going to hurt a pure-blood that much; they don't want to spill too much of our blood."

"And before that funeral I'd have agreed with you, but they were both pure-blood." Fred's face looked grave, "I couldn't bear to go to your funeral, and you know it would rip the whole family apart. Dad would never be the same again, and I dread to think what Mum would be like."

"You're worth too much to all of us," George continued.

"We know things must be rough at school." Fred raised his arm to stop her. "We don't doubt it and we're more than willing to spring you from there if you want."

"And we're not staying we would have done things differently," George smiled. "Hell, you've made us so proud."

"The sword incident was inspired," Fred smiled.

"The Quidditch fireworks were a stroke of pure genius."

"And each time you stand up to those Death Eaters you do the Weasley name proud and we have openly admitted that you're our sister." Ginny found herself returning his smile. "But this isn't like standing up to Umbridge."

"You're telling me," Ginny muttered.

"And it's not like you're not capable; you're more than capable. You can be pretty damn scary at times, it's really impressive." Fred took another sip, "I'll be happy to fight by your side whether you're underage or not but until then it's not worth the risk. It's not worth you becoming so battered. So I guess, and I never thought that I'd be the one to say this, that it's safety first. You've got to promise us to be more careful. Okay?"

"Okay," she whispered so quietly they could barely hear her words.

"Thank you."

Silence fell on the room as Ginny let her older brother pull her into a hug that lasted for what felt like several minutes although it was probably just a few seconds before they broke apart, both of their faces turning a bright red that matched their hair.

George smiled breaking the silence, "Well, now that's agreed, let's finish that bottle."


	13. A Cold Christmas and an Unhappy New Year

Chapter Thirteen: Wishing You a Cold Christmas and an Unhappy New Year

Disclaimer: Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

Christmas morning was much quieter than normal with just Fred and George there for opening presents after a quick breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches. The cold air had even frozen over the windows as it encased the house and offered a start to a gloomy, non-Christmassy day. Even the presents weren't the same. Naturally, there were the Weasley jumpers, but that was it. With the Hogsmeade ban, Ginny had been unable to get anything for any of her family. Thankfully the twins had taken mercy on her and added her name on all their presents.

A surreal Christmas lunch followed. There was plenty of food; if anything, there was too much for just the five of them. Molly had cooked enough for all her children and their partners in the hope of keeping things the same but in the end it just felt depressing. Fred and George were trying to make light of the situation, and the fact that they were missing Bill, Charlie, Percy and Ron this year, by telling a series of jokes. Normally, Ginny would have joined in with them, but this year was far from normal. This year half her family was missing and there was a reward for Harry that was large enough to make many people consider drastic actions that they would not have done normally and the Death Eaters had Luna.

Christmas was a time for families, especially in the Weasley family. So this, in her book, wasn't even a real Christmas. There was no point in pretending to participate in the festivities.

She didn't even feel like smiling this year, let alone laughing.

Ginny slowly started to pick at her food using her fork to push her carrots underneath a couple of pieces of turkey. She didn't feel much like eating either. She doubted that Luna, Ron, Harry or Hermione were having much of a Christmas dinner, so why should she get one? Carefully, she started to build a tower of mashed potatoes, pushing it together with her fork and mopping up other small pieces of vegetables. If she wanted to leave this table anytime today she had to make it look like she had eaten something.

Her mum had already made too many remarks on how her once healthy appetite had disappeared and that now she was far too thin. The worst part of these comments had been knowing that her mum was not completely exaggerating. She was eating enough, but only just, and she was under no illusion about the fact that she had come home from Hogwarts looking very different this year, but then, this was hardly a normal year, so why should she look the same? It was right that she looked different.

"Ginny," her mum snapped.

"Mum," she muttered.

"If you are going to act like a five-year-old then I will treat you like one," Molly lectured in that voice that Ginny knew only too well and Ginny had to forcibly stop herself rolling her eyes at her mother's words. "Now, will you stop playing with your food and actually eat it?"

Ginny took a mixture of turkey, parsnip and sprouts onto her fork as she felt her mother's eyes watching her. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to ease her mum's worries about her for just one day, especially since it was Christmas Day and there were other people in far worse trouble than she to worry about. Maybe that should be her Christmas present: she would behave herself and act like the good daughter her parents wanted even if it was just for one day.

A loud knock at the door just then made them all jump. George even knocked over the gravy as he passed it to his mother. Everyone they were expecting for this feeble attempt at Christmas was already here. Anyone else not this table couldn't be here or was not to be trusted. Unexpected guests were more worrisome than ever at this time, but then again, Death Eaters wouldn't knock and wait politely for the door to be answered.

Arthur got to his feet and walked over. "Who is it?" he asked, keeping his wand pointed at the locked door.

Tension filled the room as time seemed to stop. What felt like hours surely wasn't longer than a minute. Each of the Weasleys left at the table had dived for their wands and Ginny noticed her mother's face had paled. They all knew only too well what a knock on the door could lead to.

Ginny felt her throat go dry and if she had wanted to speak she would have struggled. The last time this had happened Luna had gone. Ginny looked up, wide-eyed, at her mum who put a reassuring hand over her daughter's shaking one. Ginny gulped and regained her courage as she nodded her head.

She was ready.

"It's me, Dad, Charlie," came back her brother's voice, "I used to dig up worms, put them in my pockets and forget about them till Mum did the washing. Me and Bill used to make the tables attack each other as a weekly sport in the garden. And I still deny all knowledge on how Ginny broke her arm when she was ten and we took the brooms for a walk up to the paddock."

Ginny smiled and a sense of relief flooded through her body as she thought back to Charlie's Quidditch lesson during Ron's first month at Hogwarts. That's how she had fallen twenty feet when she had tried a move that was far too complex for any ten-year-old to perform. She glanced over at the door and dropped her wand. Those words were good enough for her.

"Charlie!" Molly exclaimed as she got to her feet and Arthur slowly unlocked the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought there'd be some extra food on the go this year." Charlie eyed the table as he shook off his winter coat. "And it looks like I was right, so I'd thought I'd surprise you by helping you eat it."

Fred laughed. "Charlie finishing up all the food on the table —that's not a surprise."

"Well, Ron isn't here, so someone had to," Charlie said with a small shrug.

The two brothers made to shake hands but half way through that action changed into a fairly bizarre hug. Charlie was then passed round the room like a present receiving hugs from each of his family before he ended up wrapping his strong arms around Ginny.

"So," he looked down at her, "how's the latest Hogwarts troublemaker doing?"

"Fine," she muttered. "How are you?"

"Good," Charlie laughed, "but then I haven't been trying to steal Godric Gryffindor's sword."

"Let's get you a plate," Molly said promptly, stopping their conversation from going too much further. She obviously didn't want this topic to ruin Christmas, especially since she seemed to have just got her Christmas back. "George, would you set the place next to you?"

A new lease of life took over Christmas as soon as Arthur began carving some turkey and placing it on Charlie's plate and Charlie began telling them tales of what was happening outside of Britain.

He explained that the rumours were growing, especially with the number of Muggle-borns that were fleeing the country, but also explained that there was still no concrete proof, although there was plenty of suspicion, that Britain had fallen into a dictatorship. With Voldemort's proxy government containing lots of old members of Fudge's and Scrimgeour's ministers, it was hard to prove that anything was actually that wrong. At the same time, other countries were not willingly going to declare war on Voldemort in case he extended his reign of terror and attacked outside of Britain, especially when, at the moment, they could deny that he had returned.

No one wanted debatably the world's most evil wizard who had ever lived to turn his attentions on them when staying quiet would keep them safe.

"Why not?" Ginny finally questioned after listening to Charlie for the whole ten minutes without interruption although she was sure she already knew the answer.

"We don't all know Harry; we don't all have friends who are Muggle-borns and those of us who do, know they are safe elsewhere." Charlie shook his head. "We may like the idea of fighting this, but people have families to protect and are very scared of disappearing in the middle of the night."

Ginny glanced downwards as guilt filled her again. "Like Luna."

"Exactly," Arthur said. "Which is why we all need to be careful with the actions we take."

Dinner continued for another good hour and was followed by lazing in the living room throwing chocolate at each other, aiming for and missing their mouths. It even started to feel like Christmas, especially when Bill and Fleur made a Floo call to wish everyone a Happy Christmas.

"So who's up for the snowball fight?" George finally asked when they got bored doing nothing but playing cards and listening to the radio.

"How about putting a twist on it and using the brooms?" Fred was grinning as he got to his feet.

"Inspired," George said in agreement.

"Be careful," Molly lectured all of them before turning to Charlie, "look after your sister."

Charlie grinned. "Will do, Mum."

Ginny was not sure whether to feel relieved or annoyed. Her mum could have stopped her going or tried to, and at least now she didn't have to fight for her right to go out with her brothers. She was now getting to keep to her vague promise that she would be the good daughter for the day but having to have her brothers look after her was just plain annoying and no doubt they would tease her about it greatly later and it wasn't going to be fun.

They wrapped up against the cold December air before heading outside. Ginny was not given any time to feel any guilt about her own broom before Fred reached for Ron's broom, handing it to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulders and leading her up to the paddock that they used to play Quidditch in. At least having some of her brothers around her, she was not going to get to mope all day. Maybe she was going to get some of that Weasley Christmas after all. Charlie was making all the difference.

The Weasleys were not ones for letting a lack of a white Christmas get in the way of the annual snowball fight. The ground may have been frozen a green colour in the same paddock with not a flake of snow anywhere in sight but that was not going to make any difference. They had overcome this problem many times before. Charlie and George started making snow with their wands while Ginny and Fred made it into snowballs.

Once the snowballs were ready and piled into different corners Ginny picked up Ron's broom. She let herself hover softly above the ground before grabbing two snowballs and kicking off. Enjoying the feeling of floating and feeling the happiness start to build from her lungs with each breath she took, it was almost as if flying again was breathing the life back into her. She even smiled her normal smile, using muscles in her face that she had not used for months, making them ache.

The cold air hit her face and adrenaline filled her bloodstream. She smiled as she jetted up and down, weaving a little as she tested out the broom. It felt great to be back up there. This was where she belonged, other than in Harry's arms. She needed flying to be part of her life. She aimed two frozen missiles perfectly at George before diving back down to the ground. She may have been banned from honing her Quidditch ability, but the skill and talent were there and it was coming back so naturally.

Ginny grabbed a snowball off one of the piles that were scattered around the ground in the paddock. Patting the snowball in her hands, she ducked, skilfully dodging Charlie's well-aimed snowball as easily as she had done Bludgers so often before.

She found herself actually laughing as she managed to hit Charlie flat in the face. She was actually having fun and she was refusing to feel guilty about it. She was having one moment just to be herself and she knew how it was going to be cut short when they left the fight and went straight back into the war.

She laughed again, her normally warm laugh, the one she thought had disappeared with Harry, as Fred and Charlie both hit George, making him fall. She stopped paying attention to the other two as she watched George pull up his broom as he recovered from a dive. She fell, slipping sideways on her broom, as she was hit squarely in the ribcage. She recovered her position and executed the perfect Quidditch move and as she flew upwards, she heard whoops from the other three. She must have done well if she had impressed the three of them.

"You're getting pretty good, Ginny," Charlie commented when the onset of darkness ended the match about an hour later. "It's pretty impressive."

She shrugged. "It's just fun to be back on a broom. It's liberating."

"Must be hard for the future professional player to be banned," Charlie said as he matched her stride for stride going back to the house.

"That's just a dream, and one that is defiantly not going to happen now," Ginny replied softly. "So few make it out of school to the British league and the scouts can hardly watch a banned player, so why would I even make their list now?"

Charlie shrugged. "I guess so, but I reckon you're good enough and we Weasleys don't give praise like this normally." He looked directly at her and they both stopped walking for a moment. "It's hard to say this to your baby sister." Ginny raised her eyebrows. "You're really good and putting the rest of us to shame."

They headed back into the house, leaving their boots and coats to dry in the kitchen. After a small meal of turkey and stuffing sandwiches they headed in to listen to the radio station of Molly's choice before saying their good-nights and going up to bed.

By the next morning Charlie had headed up to see Bill and Fleur before he had to leave the country and head back to work. Giving his mother huge apologies for his fleeting visit, he promised he would come back and stay longer next time. The twins went back to their flat in Diagon Alley, ready for the start of the January sales at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, leaving the house feeling very empty and very, very cold.

Ginny herself slowly headed downstairs after spending at least a full hour throwing paper balls aimlessly into her bedroom bin, with the thought of escaping on one of her brothers' brooms. Being at home was even more frustrating than being at school. Even if it was hard being there, school at least had the Death Eaters to strike against; here, it just felt like they were, for the most part hiding and doing nothing.

"Hey, Mum," she muttered as she made her way into the kitchen.

"Ginny," her mother smiled, "how are you?"

"Fine," she shrugged as she repeated her well-rehearsed lie.

Molly eyed her suspiciously and Ginny had no doubt her mother knew she was lying right now. "Why don't you take these out to your dad?" Molly passed her a plate of sandwiches and two mugs of tea on a tray. "He's working in the shed."

"Yeah, I guess so," Ginny said, more than a little wary of her mum's motives as she grabbed a jacket before picking up the tray.

She took it outside and made the short walk to the shed. She pushed open the door with more than a little trepidation. She was not stupid; she knew she was being sent down here for a reason. Her parents had obviously been talking about what to do about her and they had obviously decided that her father would be a better choice at reasoning with her. Maybe, since her mother used words so often, her dad using them would shock her into action—or more accurately, inaction. They were going to do anything they could to get her to behave and to keep her safe even if that meant them telling her not to be herself for the moment.

Ginny pushed open the door. "Hey, Dad."

Arthur looked up from Sirius' old bike, which he had been working on. "Ginny," he smiled at her.

"Mum asked me to bring these down," Ginny shrugged as she set them down on the side and grabbed one of the cups of tea. "Mum won't let anyone starve."

"That's your mum for you," he agreed as he took his own cup of tea, "she worries over all of us."

"I know that."

Arthur used his wand to shoot sparks at the motorbike. "She worries about you too, Ginny."

"I know, Dad." Ginny took a seat. "You're hardly the first person to tell me this."

"Well," he sighed and placed his wand down, making sure he was giving her his full attention. It was unnerving. "There are lots of people worried about you."

"I know that too, Dad," she met his eyes, "and I'm not trying to make you worry, but I can't sit there doing nothing."

"We're not doing 'nothing'; we're just being careful, making sure those we love don't get hurt." He took her hand and looked closely at it. "You know how much this hurts us, right? To see you hurt and watch you come home so defeated? Your mother hadn't seen you cry like that in years."

Ginny just nodded; she knew exactly when he was referring to.

Damn her guilt! When was it going to stop grating away at her insides? Why did life have to be this hard?

"What they are doing to you hurts us," he paused, "just as much as it hurts you."

"I know," she whispered, her words barely carrying in the air as she glanced downwards.

Arthur tipped his daughter's head up so she was forced to look directly at him. "What's really going on at Hogwarts, Ginny?"

Ginny shrugged. "They're just teaching us how to be good pure-bloods."

Arthur kept his eyes fixed on his daughter, making her meet his gaze. "And what does that entail?"

Ginny shrugged again; she needed to downplay this as much as possible, she didn't need to hurt him any more than she was going to. She knew that he was already both hurt and disgusted by what was happening at the Ministry. He didn't need to know that things were just as bad if not worse at Hogwarts.

"Ginny," her dad raised his voice.

She let out a long deep breath. This was not going to be easy and it seemed there was no way of getting herself out of it. This was just what her mother had planned when she had sent her down there. There was really no escape from this small shed, whereas it was much easier to flee the kitchen.

"It's nothing, Dad, I swear." She glanced downwards as she tried to think of the right way to phrase, "We just have to listen in Muggle Studies to how Muggles and Muggle-borns are worse than animals. We just copy down."

Arthur studied her face. " ... and the Dark Arts?"

"Similar."

Worry creased his forehead and the frown lines were etched into his face. "And if that stubborn nature and temper gets the better of you?"

"I get detention," she shrugged again; she was desperate for this to end, there was no need to hurt her parents. She just had to make sure she told them enough to satisfy them but not enough to hurt them with the grim realities of Hogwarts. "Just like I've done so many times before."

"What kind of detention?"

"Dad," she offered in protest.

"Ginny." He overruled.

She held her hand up. "Lines."

Arthur took her hand, studying it as he ran his own along the words. Ginny could swear she could see tears sparkling in his blue eyes. "You _will_ tell me if it gets worse won't you, Ginny? We'll get you out of there."

"Will do," she replied, feeling only slightly guilty about lying about it. There was no way she was leaving this fight no matter how hard it got. Ginny glanced down at the motorbike, frantically thinking of a way to change the subject. "So what are you doing with the motorbike, Dad?"

"Just fixing it for Harry," he smiled at her, "for when he gets back."

Ginny ran her hands along the handle bars. She couldn't even start to think of ways to express her gratitude and the relief that she felt that her dad felt so strongly that they were going to get Harry back that he was already doing things to prepare for it.

She smiled up at him. "Can I help?"

Arthur laughed. "Only if you promise never to ride it."

"Dad."

Arthur sighed. Her dad knew only too well how stubborn she could be. "You'll wear a helmet?"

Ginny smiled. "Will do."

Life slipped almost back to normal at The Burrow. With the Ministry and Hogwarts out of their lives, no matter how temporarily it was, you could see the strain lift off them. They didn't have to act or to pretend. As hard as it was to live there, at least they could be themselves.

On Sunday there was brief mention of going to see the Lovegoods, only to have the news come down just hours later that the house had exploded and now Luna's dad was missing too.

Ginny's world came back, crashing around her.

The guilt came back that they had enjoyed themselves, laughed around playing Quidditch as others were being taken from their homes. The shame of what had happened to Luna had returned, along with the guilt that they should have done so much more to help. Then there was the sense of helplessness that she was doing nothing. No matter how small their efforts at Hogwarts, she had to get back there; she had to do something. She had her energy back and needed to use it to strike back.

By New Year's Eve, she had gone back to wallowing in her guilt and misery.

She sat on the window ledge in her bedroom, letting her feet dangle just short of the tree branch below it. If she wanted to, she could climb straight out of this window, but instead she just stared out, watching through the darkness in the direction of Luna's house. She knew they weren't going to find her any time soon despite what they had sworn.

Luna, Ron, Harry and Hermione, everyone she loved, was gone or still in danger and there was no end in sight to that. The New Year was not going to magically bring them back. This was just another grim day as the war dragged on and she stood to lose even more.

Wasn't a New Year all about welcoming change and bringing a new start?

So where was her New Year? Or where, at the very leas,t was a chance to get her old life back? Where was the news that this was all going to end and she was going to see everyone she loved again? Where was the magic of her New Year and a new start as she left this grim year behind her?

Her door pushed open. "You going to come down?" Fred's voice drifted in. "People can't wait to see you."

"I'll be down in a min," she said as she used her arm to dry her tears before swinging her legs round and dropping back down into her room.

After quickly running a brush through her hair and grabbing the jumper off her bed, she headed downstairs. Christmas may have been quiet but New Year's Eve was not going to be, by the looks of it. The downstairs was packed with all of those her parents obviously could get to come. As much as they could, they were going to celebrate.

Ginny was slightly shocked to see that Fred had brought Angelina Johnson with him; she had thought she would be with her family, but then George had quietly explained as he came over to say 'hi' with Lee Jordan that she had not wanted to be there, as it was too painful.

Other than the twins' guest, there were Bill and Fleur who were clearly still the picture of newlyweds as they had their arms draped over each other. They were talking to Remus and Tonks, who was clearly sporting a small bump, while over in the corner was Andromeda sipping a glass of Firewhisky and talking to Ginny's parents.

"So, George," Ginny said as she made her way back over to her brother, making sure to include both George and Lee in the joke, "Lee Jordan, is there something that you want to tell me?"

George laughed. "At least I have a date."

"Oh, Georgie," Lee mocked as he winked at George and smiled at Ginny, "don't let all our secrets out."

"We were both dateless," George dropped his voice, so only Ginny and Lee could hear his words, "and then Fred said he was bringing Angelina."

"I knew she'd need that much more support," Lee said just as quietly, picking up a beer and taking a long drink from it.

"So which one of you two needs a pair of balloons?" Fred laughed as he led Angelina over with his hand tightly tucked around hers. "Unless one of you is dating Ginny."

"What do you say, Ginny?" Lee winked at her.

"Sorry, I'm taken," she smiled back at him as Lee shrugged and threw his arm around George as Ginny turned her attention to Fred's girlfriend. "Hi, Angelina."

"Ginny," she said in much softer tones than Ginny had ever heard her use before, "how are you?"

"I'm okay, coping," Ginny shrugged, "you?"

"The same," Angelina echoed, "heard you got the captaincy for the team."

Ginny forced a smile. "Well, had it for one match."

"You'll have it back next year," Fred grinned at her, "once we get rid of all those Death Eaters."

"Let's just hope I still have a broom," Ginny replied softly. "And Snape hasn't used it for cindering."

"I'll let you borrow mine," Fred told her.

They continued talking about Quidditch for a solid hour and it felt good. Good to be talking about their respective teams' chances for the British league while berating the suffering and lack of goals with the disappearance of several key — mainly Muggle-born — players.

She drifted over to Remus and Tonks over half an hour later, before the conversation could either turn back to her or get serious about another matter. If she was not going to wallow tonight, she needed to circulate so she was able to keep her act up and not let them know how bad she was feeling. If anyone spent too long with her and got in too deep, she was sure the truth would come screaming out.

"You look great," Ginny said to Tonks as she looked down at the small bump on her stomach, "how are you feeling?"

"Really good, and he's getting really big too." She squeezed Remus' hand as she spoke. "How are you?"

Ginny shrugged and repeated the lie, "Fine."

Tonks frowned at the evasion; she obviously knew where that came from, before she dropped her voice and changed tack, obviously hoping to get information in another fashion. "So are you going for any other Founders' objects after the sword? After all, they are a set and it would be nice to see them all together and I wouldn't mind having that cup on my mantelpiece."

"I'm think I'm done with the stealing at the moment, Harry only needed the sword," she smiled. "Besides, even if you could find the cup and the locket, the tiara's been missing for centuries. I don't think anyone's going to find that any time soon. We'd be better off getting the one from Luna's dad. It's probably as useful and looks — well, a hell of a lot more interesting."

"You were there when Luna was taken?" Remus questioned as he squeezed Tonks' hand, as Ginny added a small nod in response, not wanting to say 'yes' and admit to the shame of letting it happen again. "Did they hurt you?"

"No," Ginny whispered, "not really."

"And do they think you know anything about Harry?" Remus continued.

"No," Ginny shrugged, "and they really are right there; he left without telling me anything. I'm pretty much useless to them, hardly a threat at all."

" ... Unless you cause too much trouble."

Ginny forced a smile as she echoed her old teacher's words, " ... unless I cause too much trouble." She paused and looked at Remus. "Do you know where Harry is?"

"I know even less than you do," he told her softly.

The New Year was welcomed with mass celebration, small toasts to Harry, hopes that others, including Ted, would be able to return home. Whether the hope was false or not, they started their new year with the hope that everything would be okay and they would get that new start.

Ginny slept in late on New Year's Day and then for the next couple of days before she was forced to get up to return to school on the Sunday.

They got ready that morning with a number of prolonged hugs that Ginny passed around to each member of the family as the prize that you did not want to let go of in a game of Pass the Parcel. It was so much more than saying goodbye for just a few months, and they all knew it. Ginny tried to smile despite the worry that was clear on her family's faces and was now settling within her.

The last two times she had travelled on the Hogwarts Express, there had been Death Eaters. The last two times she had been hurt, as she was found wanting against Death Eaters. And the last two times students had been taken.

What was to stop that happening again?

No, she couldn't let herself be tormented with those thoughts. She had nothing they wanted, as she'd told Remus and Tonks; she didn't know anything. She wasn't worth catching. Everything was going to be fine.

It just had to be.

The tension was worse than she had ever known it as she crossed the barrier at King's Cross Station with her mum. Parents seemed even more scared and worried and Ginny guessed they had good reason. As well as the two unexplained stops, Ginny knew the rest of the parents there probably had a better idea what was going on at the castle after listening to their children's stories over Christmas.

She looked around the station and there seemed to be even fewer people there. Probably more had fled the country or gone into hiding, scared of what might happen to their children, and who could blame them? She let her mum give her a long hug and kiss her on her forehead before she glanced around the station, spotting Neville and his grandmother just by Andrew Harper and his parents.

It was a relief to see Neville and know that nothing had happened to him over the Christmas holidays. She didn't know what she would have done if she had lost him, too. Ginny rushed over and threw her arms around him. She kept a tight hold of him as if she needed that physical proof that he was okay. Neville just smiled and hugged her back, obviously feeling the same.

Neville finally broke the hug. "So, you ready to go back?" He eyed the Hogwarts Express suspiciously and asked, "Ready to get back on the train?"

Ginny reached down to her trunk. "As I'm ever going to be." She glanced back at her mum and then to the train. "Let's get this fight back on track again."


	14. Hogwarts Hostility

14:Hogwarts Hostility

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The train journey was hell. The D.A took over three compartments and crammed them full of members. They were not taking any risks this time, they were not going to lose anyone else, but despite all the tension and the nervous reaching for their wands every time the compartment door opened, the train did not stop until they reached Hogsmeade Station. With the tension starting to ease, they went to dinner in peace and used the coins to call a meeting for that evening.

The meeting itself took forever to start, as holiday stories were discussed and hugs were shared. After what had happened at Christmas and the disappearance of more people, there was more than a little relief to see each other again. It was kind of strange how quickly, and how strong the friendships had grown and they were now more like a family than a group of friends and they were going to stick around for good. Ginny knew she was more than willing to turn to anyone in the D.A. and she could trust them with whatever she asked.

"Okay," Ginny said as she called the meeting to order, "I hope everyone had a good Christmas." She stopped, seeing Terry Boot's hand the air and smiled — trust the Ravenclaws to have questions. "Terry?"

"You've been reading the _Prophet_, right?" Ginny just nodded unwilling to pass comment on the Death Eater rag's current opinions. "Well," Terry continued, "they are reporting that Hermione Granger is currently with Harry Potter." Ginny nodded again, not trusting her voice, she had been more than a little worried when that article had come out. "Is Ron with them too?"

She looked at all the expectant faces knowing that while she may trust them she was not going to put them in danger. "Ron's ill."

"You can trust us, Ginny," Lavender Brown chimed in.

"And you can trust me when I say that all you need to know is that Ron is ill." Several of the D.A exchanged glances and whispers before Ginny moved on. "Anyway, I guess you all know that we've lost Luna." This time Anthony Goldstein's hand was in the air. She forced her smile to stay in place. Damn Ravenclaws and their questions. "Anthony?"

"Okay, well, Hermione obviously knows where Harry is, Luna has been taken so she must have some knowledge," he fixed his stare, "so do you, as his girlfriend, know where he is?"

Ginny froze for a instant at the words but her heart was pounding so hard it was almost like a rallying call to him to come and find her, to let her help and most importantly, to let him know that she had fallen in love with him. She shrugged it off; it did no good what-so-ever to let herself think like that.

"If I knew where he was, why would I put myself through this hell?" Ginny kept her voice calm but was struggling to do so, she was desperate to snap. It was almost killing her to hold back the emotion that was welling inside her; all the hurt and the worry, but it would do no good to give in to that. It wasn't going to help anyone, least of all her. "I would love to know where he is, even if that would put me in a worse position than I am now. I dream of it. Hell, it's all I can think of. It's pure torture."

She pushed her emotions back into her stomach but she could still feel them thick in her tone of voice. "As soon as I know, I'll let you guys know."

"And Luna was taken because of what her dad was printing in _The Quibbler_," Neville interrupted much to Ginny's relief, "not for what she knew. None of us know anything."

Ginny smiled at Neville as she finally got back on track. "I guess what we're saying is that recent events have really woke us up. We are in a war; we're not playing and they are going to hit us hard. Hell, they took Luna, they are going to come after us and I say let's hit them back, just as hard. We have to show them we aren't kids, that we're not just playing games and pulling pranks and that we aren't going to listen to their crap about being good pure-bloods. They've hit us where it hurts, let's hit back below their belts too."

"We are _not_ saying put yourselves in danger," Neville continued, "but we are all refreshed from our break away and we reckon we can do more. Graffiti is one thing but there's so much more. Naturally we are going to unchain those in detentions and not hand in homework but we want another huge stunt that hurts them, one that gets notice outside of school, one that tells the whole of Britain that we are fighting."

"We were thinking something like the Quidditch match stunt but we need to plan this out, get it right." Ginny found herself rubbing her hand again. "There's no point in getting hurt for the sake of it. So as well as the smaller disturbances and spell practice in here, we are going to need your help in putting it together; they can't take us all down at once."

"In the meantime, if you can think of something that will disrupt all the lessons at school at once," Neville was grinning, "let us know."

They broke up and started their spell practice after a few quick fire questions, which thankfully were focused on D.A. issues and not what might or might not be happening with Harry. The spell practice was useful and they added a few new spells to general defensive ones that Neville had read up on over the holiday. They even debated practicing the Imperius Curse so that they would be better able to resist it when the Hogwarts Death Eaters tried it on them. Although this was quickly dismissed, there was a line and this would be crossing it. There was a difference between being forced to do the Unforgivables in lessons and willingly performing them on each other.

The practice went on well into the night, breaking curfew.

At around one o'clock in the morning, the meeting was finally called to a halt. After all, it was not worth being late to lessons this year and so despite the progress that was being made they really couldn't justify finishing any later. After more hugs and long goodbyes, it was nearly an hour later when Ginny made for the door with the Room of Requirement empty of all but her and Neville.

"Ginny," Neville caught her arm as she was gathering the cushions after practice, "Ron and Hermione are with Harry, aren't they?"

Ginny looked back at him, it may not be safe for him to know, but Neville had proved himself in so many ways and she couldn't bring herself to lie to him. And even if she could lie to him, she was not sure that she could hold all this in any longer. She already felt like she was going to explode."Yeah, I think so."

Neville looked directly at her and asked, "What do you mean?"

"I honestly don't know anymore. I think they're together, they left together, I hope they are still together, but it's been months, anything could have happened." Ginny wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging herself for support, "I really don't know anything, they didn't tell me anything, they just took off. They were trying to protect me, just like everyone else."

Ginny let Neville pull her into a hug and she softly let her head rest on his shoulder as she felt his warm arms wrap around her. They gave so much more support than just her own arms. It was almost as if that extra support would actually stop her from falling apart. Slowly when she felt like she had enough strength to go on, she pulled back away.

"And now you're trying to protect the rest of the D.A." Neville smiled softly at her. "You two are so well suited, got the same Gryffindor nobility, it's unbelievable, really."

Ginny shrugged. "It's just safer that way."

"I get that," Neville said as his smile grew, "but that makes it really hard on you, dealing with all this alone."

She forced herself to smile at him. "I'll deal, I always do."

"And I'm here, I always will be, in case you need a bit of help dealing." He paused before smiling back at her and this time his smile looked a lot less forced than her own. "You're like my best friend here in this chaos."

"I know that," she said as hugged him, "which is good since you have already declared yourself yet another of my brothers."

It was in the early hours of the next morning before Ginny went back up to her dorm room, not that that fact effected her sleep too much. Even if she hadn't been in the Room of Requirement, she doubted she would have got much more sleep. Her nightmares came back to her and she woke several more times gasping for air and trying to hold back the screams that would have woke the other Gryffindor sixth years. Although with the worried looks she got in the morning, she might not have been too successful at that.

She just couldn't get the sense of dread out of her mind that this was not going to work out and that Harry was going to get hurt. And if it was not Harry then it would be someone else she loved. Those thoughts made her shake more when she woke because she knew that her nightmare had such a good chance to become reality. She had so much invested in this war and things had never looked darker, there was no way that everything was going to work out.

Soon maybe it would not just be her nights that were filled with images of death.

Ginny forced down half a bacon sandwich in the Great Hall the following morning, even though she did not feel much like eating. She had promised herself that she was not going to be lectured about losing weight when she returned home at Easter for the holidays. At least that would give her mum one less thing to worry about especially since she was sure that her mum would hear her screams if her nightmares continued while she was at home. Besides if she was going to hit the Death Eaters hard, she was going to need all her energy, she couldn't afford to let herself get into the mess that she had been at the end of last term.

She had to keep some sense of normality in her life, if only to keep herself sane. She joined in with the jokes at the Gryffindor table even if she avoided the boy talk. She had to admit she was a little torn. It would be so much easier to be back in that world, where all she had to worry about was boy talk, Quidditch and her grades. Last year was just so much easier.

Finally when she could put off the reality of her life no longer, she got to her feet. She had to face it sooner than later. She joined the other sixth year girls as they made their way up to first floor Dark Arts classroom.

She joined the line and looked over to the Ravenclaws and it hit her for the first time — Luna wasn't there in the line. Instead there was just the rest of the Ravenclaws lined up as they should be with no Luna reading at the back. She wasn't there and she wasn't going to be in the lessons either. She could be God knows where but just not here, as her friend, her support, one of her few lifelines helping her to function.

Luna was really gone.

Luckily before she could wallow and lament the fact too much and as she headed to her back row of the Dark Arts classroom, Demelza left her normal seat next to Ritchie to join her behind the shield of books on the back row. Ritchie turned to smile at his girlfriend and then at Ginny before making his own barrier of books and turning to face the front. Ginny smiled back; they may not be Luna and possess her special qualities but she did have friends left that she could count on.

"You ready for this, Ginny?" Demelza whispered as she piled her own books on the table to help the defensive wall against the Death Eater.

Ginny glanced up at Carrow who was already acting like an overgrown schoolboy as he stared at his class and played with his wand. "As I'll ever be."

"I know I'm not Luna but l — we all — still have your back, even in class," Demelza shrugged, "you know if you need it."

Ginny turned back to face her friend and ignored the shiver that had just run down her spine. "It's going to be hard, eh?"

"We're still working on the Unforgivables, right?" She looked down at her book and murmured, "Imperius, I think."

Ginny shrugged. "Well I guess it's just about getting used it again and hiding everything happening here from the parental units, it'll only stress them out and my mum's already gone on that front."

Demelza looked directly at her and asked, "Did yours ask about what they were doing too? Mine were thinking about leaving the country so that we didn't have to come back."

"I think everyone's parents went down that route," Ginny said as she forced a smile, "but it's not going to change what's happening here, what we and they can do, so I guess it doesn't really change our situation here."

"Weasley," Carrow wheezed at her from the front of the class breaking their conversation.

"What?" she spat back, with as much venom dripping in her voice as she could conjure.

"Yes, Professor," he encouraged with a leer as he stared at her.

Ginny shrugged, trying to ignore the shiver that had returned to running up and down her spine. "If you say so."

Carrow grinned. "Detention, Miss Weasley, tomorrow night."

"What on earth for?" Ginny spat back without thinking even as Demelza hissed her name in a quiet plea.

"You're being very rude." His grin had grown. "Talking in class, answering back. Your behaviour is hardly representative of your blood status. You still have lessons to learn and we are more than happy to teach them."

"God, this is utter bollocks," she muttered in a carrying voice as she resisted the temptation to send the Death Eater a two fingered salute.

"Ginny," Demelza whispered in a desperate plea. "Don't."

She could feel her temper rising. She wanted to kick over her chair, pull out her wand and then after using a well aimed curse, or she would settle for a well placed kick in the groin before storming out of the room but as much satisfaction that that would bring, it wasn't worth it. If she was going to cause that much of a scene she needed more than a moment's pleasure in return for the pure blood lessons she would be taught in punishment. She took a series of long deep breaths and slowly started to bring her temper back into check.

"Let's make that two detentions." Carrow let out his pig-like squeal of laughter which some students echoed to deafening effect. "Now unless you want to make it three you will join your classmates in copying out chapter thirty-six on 'The Correct Use of the Imperius Curse within Society.'"

Before Ginny could even reply, she felt Demelza kick her leg. "Remember how you finished last term. Don't start this term off like you started last."

Ginny just pulled out quill and parchment and started to copy, not taking care to keep her writing readable. Dark Arts was followed by Muggle Studies and another detention when she was unable to stop herself from telling Alecto Carrow to shove her essay on 'Why Using the Process of Ethnic Cleansing Should Be Considered in Regards to Mudbloods' where the sun doesn't shine, to the loud groans of several of the Gryffindors.

If she was going to get detention anyway, as one Carrow sibling had shown her, she might as well deserve them.

And she was not the only one to earn detention. By the end of the first four periods, all the Gryffindor sixth years, even those who were not in the D.A., as well as several of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had been placed in detention at least once. There was no doubt about it, they were being targeted.

It was a relief when it finally got to lunch. At least that gave her time to breathe away from the Death Eaters but not just that; the pointless lessons that she had to endure were over. She was more than a little thankful for the break from the morning's childlike activities and dreaded the return to guerrilla warfare.

"Hey," Neville called as he made his way over to the Gryffindor table.

"Hey." She forced a smile as she slid down the table to make room for the seventh years that were now appearing from their respective lessons. "How's your morning been?"

"Fine but then I'm not in the Death Eater lessons on a Monday." Neville took the seat next to her and started piling both hers and his own plate with food. "How was your morning?"

Ginny shrugged. "Same old, scored detention just like everyone else."

Neville paused holding his fork in midair. "What do you mean?"

"Well, it was almost as if they had a hit list and had divided us up between them and were just hitting out. In fact, I'm positive they have a list. They really mean it this term, they want to take us down any way they can and things are going to get a lot worse if you ask me." She paused, glanced down at her food then took a deep breath before looking up. "I would say you guys need to be careful but if they've gone after the sixth years, they're going to go after the seventh years too. That's Harry's year, his friends."

Neville looked directly at her and his eyes met hers. "So how many detentions did you get?"

"One that I deserved, another I might have deserved," Ginny shrugged at her words trying to play down the importance of them, "and a third that there was no way I deserved."

"Ginny."

"Come on, Neville. Please don't 'Ginny' me." This time she met his eyes. "I got enough of that at home. I don't need it or the guilt here. I'm only doing what you would have done."

"You've got it, no more 'Ginnying'," Neville grinned. "Want to put up some more graffiti?"

She smiled back. "Always."

The rest of the lunchtime was spent scrawling graffiti on the walls, coming up with as many crude words as she could and using the full extent of her rather colourful vocabulary as she wrote about Snape and the Carrows as well as her support messages for Harry. She knew that it hadn't been even twenty-four hours since she'd dismissed this tactic as kid stuff and she still believed that. They needed real stuff to fight back with just as she had said last night but it still didn't hurt to mix in the other stuff especially when she was feeling hurt herself.

Potions was fine and so was the rest of the day if you didn't count being called down to her Head of House's office and Professor McGonagall's latest lecture about her conduct. The next day brought detentions as predicted to the Gryffindor seventh years as well as the rest of the member of the D.A. in either Dark Arts or Muggle Studies. At six o'clock she headed down to the Dark Arts classroom along with Ritchie, Seamus and Parvati, who had all been given detention that evening.

Ginny was more than a little suspicious when she saw a line of Slytherin sixth and seventh years waiting outside the classroom. Surely all those Slytherins had not earned detention too. As far as she knew Slytherin detentions were a very rare thing this year.

Both of the Carrow siblings came into the Dark Arts classroom. Amycus was literally bouncing on his feet as he walked, excitement getting the better of him, a fact that was making Ginny very uneasy. What Amycus Carrow got excited over was not the stuff that a sane person got excited over. Whatever he was getting excited over was something to be very worried about. Alecto Carrow looked up and down the line and her mouth twisted into a grin.

Something was going on with the pair of them.

"Enter the classroom," Amycus wheezed.

Alecto rubbed her hands together. "This should be good."

"Oh, let me have Weasley." Ginny looked up to see Amycus leering at her again. "Just let me play with her for a bit."

Ginny felt the familiar twist in her stomach that made her feel sick and her heartbeat went into overdrive. She had no doubt over his motives, she very much doubted that being young enough to be his daughter would make any difference either. Just as her heart felt like it was going to pound through her ribcage, she felt Parvati's hand on her shoulder and she managed to start to control her breath which started to ease her accelerated heart beat.

"We won't let him hurt you," the older girl breathed.

"You heard the Headmaster, the students need the practice, so they are ready for leaving school and joining the Dark Lord's service," Alecto snapped back promptly at her brother before turning her attention back to the line. "Enter the classroom before we have to use force."

They all made their way into the classroom just moments later. Following both Carrow siblings' instructions, the Slytherins lined up.

Ginny glanced around the classroom. All the desks had been pushed to the side just as they had been under Moody when they had practiced duelling here although she was sure that duelling practice would be very different from what it had been under a Death Eater in hiding as opposed to those who were out in the open. It was going to be more like the lessons when they were forced to use curses on each other but she doubted very much that they would be allowed to use their partners right now.

She looked up and down the line of Slytherins. With the exception of one they were all grinning and they looked just as excited as the Carrow siblings. Vincent Crabbe looked like he might actually break into a dance. Andrew Harper, however, had a look of purpose to him as if he was just doing what had to be done.

Things started to click together. Andrew Harper was not just another Slytherin, he had to be the sixth year that Fred had been referring to at Christmas. After all, how many Sara Harpers could there be in the wizarding world with younger brothers in the sixth year at Hogwarts? She really wanted to kick herself for not working things out sooner. Harper may be a pure-blood Slytherin but he had at least one family member who didn't fully agree.

No wonder he didn't look like the other Slytherins.

"Miss Weasley," Amycus Carrow purred as he stroked his wand, "at the personal request of the Headmaster, you will be paired with Mr Harper."

Ginny glanced at Harper and then back at the Death Eater. "Paired doing what?"

"Mr Harper will be practicing the Cruciatus curse on you, Miss Weasley." Amycus Carrow's voice was ringing with excitement. "Personal request of the Headmaster. It's time for Andrew to show where his family's loyalties lie."

"Yeah, Harper," one of the seventh year Slytherins chimed in, "are you a Death Eater or a blood-traitor like Weasley or your sister?"

"Shut it!" Harper raised his wand as he spoke.

"You know she got what she deserved, right man?" another called. "Blood-traitors are worth no more than Mudbloods or other scum."

Ginny watched as Harper's hand tightened on his wand and glared at the other Slytherins. He looked like he was barely controlling his temper as red sparks were shooting off the end of his wand and his face was red. She would not have been surprised to see him aiming his wand at the other Slytherins after that teasing. Playing on the nightmare of losing a sibling was well below the belt. Harper then spun back round with a look of disgust on his face.

"Crucio."

Caught off guard, Ginny dropped her wand as she felt the fire spark through every bone in her body. She was numb, unable to respond as she had the sensation of all her bones being alight but the pain was not unbearable. As far as she was still aware she was on her feet and her mind was still working, she still knew exactly what she was thinking. This was nothing like the Cruciatus curse that the Death Eaters had fired at her, almost as if it had not been sent with the same level of hatred.

She dropped to the floor as soon as the wand was lifted. However, it was only a matter of minutes before she was able to stand again and even with Harper firing the curse at her three more times during the detention she was still able to walk back up to Gryffindor Tower. She could even help Parvati, who had been paired with Gregory Goyle, into the common room when they reached it.

The rest of January continued in a similar fashion to the first few days. It soon became apparent that the whole month was going to be cold and hard. The detentions continued, with older students mainly in Slytherin issuing the Cruciatus Curse against those in detention. Ginny started to get used to being part of the lines to enter the Dark Arts classroom for curse practice in regular detentions. It seemed no matter what she did or how she behaved, she was going to get at least one of these detentions every week. The Death Eaters looked for any excuse no matter how feeble even extending to giving Neville detention for going over to the Hufflepuff table to have a quick conversation with Hannah Abbott one lunchtime.

The D.A.'s new mantra for the term quickly became, 'We might as well deserve them.'

Plans were upped for a major disturbance to the whole castle which would take place after the Hogsmeade Valentine's Day visit and Neville and Seamus could meet Fred and George. As well as putting the detailed plans which involved the whole of the D.A. into motion, there was still the graffiti, breaking others out of dungeon detentions and the new act of rebellion: the refusal to do homework. However the fact that buoyed Ginny the most was the fact that Carrows' actions weren't hurting the D.A., in fact they were making them stronger.

After just two weeks back at school, two of Ginny's fellow Gryffindor sixth years, Amy Palmer and Elizabeth Jones, asked about the D.A. and joined up. Soon Harry's original group had grown to at least twice the size with members from the fourth year upwards in Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff making all acts of defiance easier with more members.

They now had enough members to create distractions.

The meetings and detentions continued into February and on Saturday 14th, Neville and Seamus collected some more spare bits of parchment from the Weasley twins while Ginny spent a lonely Saturday staring out onto the Hogwarts Lake. She spent most of the day retracing her steps of the previous spring by the lake in those happy times. She even let herself think about Harry for hours at a time instead of trying to dismiss her memories, knowing when she faced reality again it would hurt all the more that he was gone.

As she wrapped her arms around herself partly due to the cold but mainly due to the onset of loneliness, she let herself wallow in the memories. She remembered the feeling as Harry ran his hands up her back and into her hair, how when he kissed her, it literally took her breath away and swept her off her feet and the way that she couldn't help smiling every time she saw his face. She even let herself dream that she was going to get him back, that he would make it out the other side of this war.

Losing track of time, she made her way up to the castle late that evening and well after curfew. Luckily she made it safely up to the common room by using several of the back passages of Hogwarts. Just like the other members of the D.A. she had learnt the passages around the school so well and they had worked to avoid detention. They now knew the passages even better than Filch did and Ginny suspected that she had finally learnt more about the castle than Fred and George and she didn't have a map to help her either. It was amazing what you could learn when it became necessary.

The Gryffindor common room was celebrating when Ginny finally clambered through the portrait hole. It was a party worthy of any post match Quidditch victory even over the Slytherins. They had managed to get the stuff they needed from Hogsmeade and they now could carry out their plans. They had also managed to collect plenty of treats from Honeydukes and even some drinks from The Hog's Head to liven up the celebration. The party to celebrate this went well into Sunday morning and lifted Ginny out of her Valentine's gloom.

The rest of the weekend went well but Monday brought the current Hogwarts quickly back into focus as Ginny got detention for the tone of voice when she had said the word 'Professor' that she had used in her Dark Arts lesson.

That evening as Ginny joined the line for detention at the Dark Arts classroom door, she noticed this time that instead of a line of older Slytherin students as was usually the case, there was now a line of first year students none of them wearing Slytherin robes.

Surely, this could not be good news, especially if it was a familiar detention to what she had grown used to. This was not a normal, well as normal as they could be, detention by any means. Things were about to become so much worse, especially if they were still doing spell practice in detentions.


	15. Unforgiveable

Chapter Fifteen: Unforgiveable

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

Ginny's fears were confirmed as soon as she entered the room. There were no Slytherins anywhere in sight, just the first years. God, they looked so small and there was no way that they would be able to master the curses that were about to be fired in here. They were still learning how to float feathers at that age, while they were learning how to fire the unforgivable curses.

Oh shit!

Her stomach sank and she wanted to be sick. There was a knot twisting her insides, mixing all her emotions and playing with them. She was definitely going to be ill.

There was no way, absolutely no way that she could do this.

Having the curses fired on her was one thing.

She had come to accept them, even see how in the Death Eaters eyes, that she deserved them. She may be a pure-blood but she was without doubt in the eyes of the new regime a blood traitor, and she was fighting back at them with her every breath. Surely the first years weren't doing that. She deserved her detentions. She had made sure of that since she realised that she was going to get them anyway, she had made it her point to deserve them. Surely, the first years did not deserve such a harsh detention. They would not be back talking to one of the Carrows, they were petrified of them, and they still probably listened to their parents' pleas.

Firing curses at friends was a completely different thing as well.

The D.A. had agreed to it, discussed it at length in the Room of Requirement, knowing that firing curses against each other was the best of several very bad options. It had been a lot less effective if the curse was not meant, as they had proved several times. Non-hateful Cruciatus Curses were tolerable, but the D. A. Members were older and they were expecting them. There was no way that she could justify setting an eleven year old's bones on fire, no matter how much she didn't mean the curse.

She didn't even need the instructions to be given to her. Looking at the two Hogwarts Death Eaters she could tell that the feelings that were currently ripping her gut apart right now were right. Amycus Carrow was bouncing on the balls of his feet, unable to keep the excitement contained within himself and Alecto Carrow's face had lit up with what could only be called glee.

"No," she spat at Alecto Carrow before she could even think much further.

"Miss Weasley," Alecto Carrow crooned as the grin on her face spread. "You have something to say?"

"Hell, yes! This is sick, sicker than the pair of you and that's saying something," she continued without pausing. She was not going to back down here. Screw the consequences. "There is no way I'm cursing a first year."

Ginny's eyes focused on one of the smaller boys. He had straight black hair and the most amazing bright blue eyes that were now opened wide in fear. He had obviously just put two and two together at her words. Ginny studied his face a little more; he looked so familiar. She was sure that he was one of the Hufflepuffs that she had helped unchain from the dungeons a couple of days ago. The first year was now shifting nervously as if he wanted to run for the door and she didn't blame him. She wanted to run for the door too and she was much older and much more resigned, no matter how grudgingly, about what was happening in the school.

She was not sure what they had been told but it was not what was actually going to happen.

Sick.

"I think you will, Miss Weasley," the female Death Eater said as she stroked her wand lovingly, "I think you will."

"Like hell," Ginny burst out, "you can go screw yourself."

"Ginny!" Demelza hissed even as Amycus Carrow walked behind the first years and kicked the dark haired Hufflepuff student forward and Alecto Carrow slashed her wand midair.

Ginny's hand shot up to her cheek almost the instant the wand slowed. Her hand meet the sticky red liquid pouring down it and over her lips; blood. She was bleeding again and not for the first time and it wouldn't be the last. It was just a cut and that was all; she could deal with it and had dealt with worse.

Hell, this was the least that she could expect for refusing to do the curse.

"Issue the curse," Alecto cried, her tone getting increasingly high pitched.

"No!" she replied bitterly with as much disdain as she could muster in her voice, much to the cries of the other D.A. members, pleading with her not to do this, not to antagonise the Hogwarts Death Eaters.

She deliberately dropped her wand to the floor, making the point very clear: they could do whatever they wanted but she was not going to curse a first year. She would take whatever they wanted to throw at her.

"_Imperius_."

She felt a warm feeling wash over her, a feeling of bliss, total relaxation. It was such a long time since she had felt like this. She would do anything now, she _could_ do anything now. Then the little voice in her head spoke: 'Issue the curse, issue the curse'. She felt herself drop to the floor and then raise her wand. She wanted to please that voice that was making her feel so calm, so happy but then her sense of reason returned. She shook her head; she was not going to do that curse. The voice returned again, this time more persistent.

"NO!" She called as she broke the curse.

"_Crucio_."

Ginny expected the cry but was still not ready for it. Fire licked against every bone, lighting her up as if she had been placed on a bonfire and she was unable to stop her scream. It was unbearable. Not that she held any sense or reason as the heat of the fire grew so it felt like the very sun had been Accioed right against her. Then just as suddenly as the pain had started, it stopped.

"Where is Harry Potter?"

"I thought I'd explained this over and over again," She pushed herself up from the floor where she had landed. "Harry dumped me. We aren't going out and it's been nearly a year. If I can get over that fact, why the hell can't you!"

"_Crucio_."

She felt her body twist in the air and she had no control over her movements. Her eyes rolled in their sockets and everything around her became just a blur of colours. Even had she wanted to focus she knew that she would not be able to. Being able to focus would mean that she would stop thinking about the pain that was covering her whole body. That she would be able to think of something other than the fire that had lit up her whole body.

With a crash she fell back to the floor as Alecto Carrow lowered her wand. Panting, she struggled to control her breath as she felt a strong kick into her ribs. She barely opened her eyes as she found herself struggling to breathe; no doubt she had yet more broken ribs but she was not going to let them see that.

She pushed herself very slowly into a sitting position, not trusting her legs yet; they would probably collapse if she used them.

"Where is Harry Potter?"

She panted back from the ground. "I don't know."

"_Crucio_."

The pain hit her again. The flames were now taking over her brain and she was losing all sense of focus. She couldn't even make out the blur of colours now. She could have been anywhere. Hell. Hell would have been a good place to think of right now and the climate was probably more pleasant there. She wanted to give in, to go there and to do anything that would stop this pain. Another scream escaped her lips against her will as the pain increased.

Her head was still spinning as the curse was lifted again and her body crashed against the floor again.

"Where is Harry Potter?"

"I don't know." Her voice was barely above a whisper but she forced it out. It hurt so much to breathe right now and she hardly wanted to waste those words on Death Eaters, unless they showed she was fighting back. "But even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you."

"_Crucio_."

Time lost all meaning as the curse was fired at her again. The dragon that was lighting her up could have been going for seconds, minutes or even hours; she had no idea. She could even feel her head flopping as she lost all sense of thought and blacked out.

Slowly she came round on the floor. Her eyes slowly came back into focus but she didn't even bother trying to push herself up. Instead she tried to focus on taking sharp short breaths and not moving any other part of her body.

It hurt too much to move.

"What is the D.A.?"

"I don't know," she pushed out and that cry was much harder.

She knew this information, unlike the questions about Harry; she could give the answer to that question and Carrow knew that. If she wanted to answer she could. She could stop herself from being hurt but that would mean betraying their trust. It would mean letting everyone down and the Carrows had to be kept away from the D.A. at all costs. If this was what they were doing to them now, things would get so much worse if they knew everything they had done and who all the members were. At least at the moment it was only really herself and Neville who were getting this kind of treatment. She couldn't give in and let others go through this.

Surely, that was what it meant to be a Gryffindor, right? This was what it meant to potentially allow herself to dream of being Harry's equal and not taking the easy choice.

She pushed herself up from the floor and with several deep breaths she slowly and unsteadily got to her feet. She almost collapsed. Her knees wanted to buckle, to give way. They didn't feel steady and she knew she wouldn't be able to stand for very long but she wanted to make her point.

"I don't know," she repeated struggling to breathe out each of the words.

"_Crucio_."

The curse hit her again and the pain was almost unendurable. She wanted to die; she wanted something, anything, to end this. She would do whatever it took--say anything, do anything, but just when she was about to break everything cracked as the curse was removed.

She was only dully aware of Draco Malfoy coming into the room and talking to both Carrows. She barely caught the whispered conversation that Snape needed to talk to them both urgently. She was even less aware of first years disappearing back to their dorm rooms or even of Demelza and Amy helping her up to the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey did not let her out of her bed in the hospital wing for two days this time. She did however tut greatly and scowl every time she gave Ginny her potions, even muttering that she was going to write to her mother. She was making it perfectly obvious that even if she did blame the three Death Eaters for what was happening at Hogwarts, she did not approve of the actions of the D.A. and thought that they were being completely irresponsible by putting themselves in a position to get hurt like this.

Over the next few days the other D.A. members did little better in detentions as they refused to do the curse on the first years. Cuts were the least of their worries even though, like Ginny's new one, they made lasting marks on their faces. Neville, Lavender, Ritchie, Michael and Susan all ended up in the hospital wing during the course of the week.

She even wondered in those moments she had to herself about how much of the relentless punishment they could take.

When would their hair start to turn white?

Would things go so far that they ended up on a closed ward like Neville's parents?

Or would she give in before that point?

She doubted that she was strong enough to endure that level of curse.

Ginny was back in class on Thursday and back in detention that evening without even a day to fully recover. Her detention on Thursday night led to her going straight back to the hospital wing. The Carrows were now determined that both she and Neville knew the secrets of the D.A. and if it wasn't for the nightly Death Eater meeting in which they surely discussed more cruelties, she was sure she would have cracked. Luckily for them Snape had the worst timing in the world and called these meetings just before the pain got completely unbearable.

She was finally allowed out of the hospital wing on Saturday morning having spent most of the week in there. The rest of the day was filled with doing homework for Transfiguration and Charms. Despite the current anti-homework protest, she could not find it in herself to let those two teachers down. In the evening, she snuck out with Neville down to where Hagrid kept the animals for his Care of Magical Creatures classes.

By Sunday they were ready for the D.A.'s meeting in the Room of Requirement. They were all ready for the relief and the break. If they had thought things were hard before Christmas or even in January when the hits had been hard, it was nothing compared to this.

"How is everyone?" Neville began and was met with a low rumble of disgruntled muttering. "Yeah, I know, it's bad."

"That's why we're striking back tomorrow," Ginny continued, "We've even managed to get several Nifflers to help with the distraction. The only problem," she felt herself give an involuntarily shudder at the words, "is that both Neville and I have detention tomorrow night."

"No, that's perfect," Anthony interrupted, "it means the Carrows can't say that you two are involved. I mean, how many times have they asked you about the D.A. in the last week? They aren't completely stupid and know that you're involved in all this."

"Oh, I like it," Terry said, "It's a perfect double bluff. They think you two are involved in everything and you're going to be right in front of their noses."

"Anyway," Neville continued with a small grin, as he unrolled their copy of a Hogwarts map, "so we have Nifflers to go in the offices. Any volunteers for that?"

Several hands shot straight up and Ginny was amazed at how many people were ready to risk trying to get into the offices, especially after what had happened the last time that she tried to break into an office.

"Ritchie and Elizabeth, can you take Alecto's office?" Ginny asked as she made a mark on a map of Hogwarts. "Make sure you use Muggle methods to get in there." She studied the hands in the air, looking directly at the group of Ravenclaws, "Gerry, Bethany, you take Amycus'."

"Now we know those offices will be free since those two will be monitoring the detention but we want to get into Snape's as well if we can. This one is much more of a risk." Neville smiled at his fellow seventh years. "So Terry, Michael, Ernie, if you three get a chance, can you go for it? If not, leave it. Don't take the risk."

"The rest of us are going to take the bits of parchment and then wherever you are around six, as soon as you're free from teachers, utter the charm, 'resistance' and watch the rest unfold. We're using everything."

Ginny tolerated her Death Eater lessons much better the next day. She didn't even need Demelza's reassurance to keep her temper under control. It helped that the Death Eaters weren't really biting back at her today. No doubt they anticipated her detention that evening and were expecting to send her back to the hospital wing again.

Both lunchtime and potions class were pretty much non-events and she was eager for detention to come. It felt strange and twisted to want to walk down to the type of detention that they were now being forced to endure but tonight was going to be very interesting.

That evening she made her way promptly to detention with Neville and Seamus. Seamus was now getting nearly as many detentions as she and Neville did. It was almost as if he had stepped up and taken Luna's role since she had been taken. She briefly allowed herself to wonder who would be the next person to step up if the Carrows got their way and got rid or her, Neville or both of them because, surely, someone had to step up. They had come this far they were not going to let it die away. Not until Harry had won this damn war, no matter how hard things got.

She felt her hand slip into her pocket as they made their way to the Dark Arts classroom. Everything they needed was there.

They lined up outside the room and saw the three token Ravenclaws where there. Even after a week of these types of detentions the whispers were still going round the castle. The first years knew they were not going to be hurt. All the D.A. members had refused to perform the curse on them. It did not stop the pain though.

Ginny had quickly learnt that the only thing worse than the deep intense pain of receiving the Carrows' curses was watching it. It was agony to stand by unable to do anything while a friend's screams filled a room. She had always known that she was not a patient person. She was not made for standing on the sidelines, she had to be involved in the action. Not being involved stung against her very core. Watching others, friends, get hurt ripped at her insides.

"Miss Weasley," Amycus Carrow's voice wheezed excitedly. "You will be up against Miss Grant."

"Don't you ever get bored with this?" she asked as she shot him a cold hard smile.

"What?" He had clearly been thrown off guard.

"This game," Ginny continued, "you know as well as I do that I'm not going to say those words; you also know I'm not going to tell you what you want to know." She forced herself to keep her voice even, with only a hint of spite and no fear. It was even harder to try to make sure that she didn't shiver. That would look worse and only increase their suspicions. No matter how many times she got into this position, it did not make things any easier. "So you may as well just get on with what you want to do."

She gulped, pushing the fears down into the pit of her stomach into the small place where she hid them all. She forced every ounce of bravery to rise and she summoned the noble, if slightly stupid, courage that flourished in her house. She was going to need it to survive.

"Perform the curse," Alecto Carrow commanded.

"Go screw yourself." She spat back, relishing every insult she got to throw at either of them.

"Cruc..." Amycus started but only got mid way through the word before he was interrupted.

"Professors," Andrew Harper said as he burst into the room.

"Harper," both teachers said as they turned to face the Slytherin.

"Professor Snape needs to see you," he said keeping his voice curt and polite, "there is chaos in both your offices and fireworks all over the school. He needs your help to clean it up."

"Damn that Weasley girl," Alecto Carrow said instantly. "I want her in this detention. She's going to pay for this and the rest of her pranks."

"Professor," Harper said, "she's standing right there, next to Longbottom and Finnigan, if you want to curse her," Alecto Carrow raised her wand, "but Professor Snape really does need to see you urgently."

"Weasley, Longbottom, Finnigan, detention tomorrow," Alecto Carrow said as she headed out of the room.

Amycus Carrow shot them one more glance before he followed his sister. The first years ran out as soon as they got their chance but Harper stayed still, perfectly still, as he looked at the three of them. His face even looked strange as if he was fighting with himself, struggling over whether he wanted to tell them something. Almost a full minute passed as they just stared at each other not moving.

"Weasley," he finally said.

"Harper," she replied in a softer tone than she had ever used with him before.

"You know they know what you and Longbottom are up to all over the castle; they know all about your little group. They know you are responsible for what's happening now," he told her. "It's all they're talking about."

"I'm standing right here," she shot back without thinking, "and how do you know what they're talking about?"

"That really doesn't matter." Harper said dismissively. "What does matter is if you do something that is seen as unforgivable, it doesn't matter what blood status you are, you're not as safe as you think."

She looked directly at him. "I couldn't agree more, Andrew, but not to act in this situation is surely unforgivable."

"You're in danger," he said bluntly. "Your group is not going to last much longer, they are coming for you, it's only a matter of time." He paused to stare at her a moment then repeated, "You're in danger."

"We all are." She paused to look at him. She was now convinced that clearly he was not the same as the rest and then continued without another moment's thought, "Andrew, we're open to any house."

"And I don't have a death wish." Harper turned to leave. "I'll tell them you left before me, so you can do whatever your noble stupidity has planned."

Ginny watched him leave and then turned in shock to Neville and Seamus. She could hardly believe what had just happened.

Had Andrew Harper just warned them?

Had he started to overstep that line between the soon to be Death Eaters and the rest of them?

Was there more to him that met the eye?

There was definitely more to his sister but he was a Slytherin. No, that should not matter.

And hadn't she just asked him to join the D.A.?

Neville and Seamus had similar looks on their faces--looks of shock and amazement. They could hardly believe what she had just done either.

"Did you just invite a Slytherin to join the D.A.?" Seamus questioned.

"He's not the same as the rest of them," Ginny said softly, "besides we need to get to work in here before they come back."

She whispered the word 'resistance' to one of the bits of parchment that she had pulled out of her pocket. She was still not sure herself why she had done that, probably because of what Fred had said her at Christmas but she didn't have enough reason to justify her actions. She dropped the parchment on the floor and started to run. The three of them had barely reached the door as the swamp took over the room.

Neville grinned at her as she locked the door. "Let that sick git find that only when he comes into class."

Performing Disillusionment charms over themselves, they darted through the castle, letting off several more Portable Swamps, a couple of Dungbombs and many, many fireworks as they made their way back up to the Room of Requirement.

The noise in the Room of Requirement was deafening. The whole of the D.A. seemed to be celebrating, the Nifflers had gone into the Carrows' offices without a problem, and Ernie had managed to get up to Snape's office after the Headmaster had run out to the chaos and placed two Nifflers in there. Only Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Slughorn's classrooms were not under Portable Swamps. They had used every single Weasley Wizard Wheezes products that they had. Fireworks were shooting throughout every corridor, bouncing off every crevice of each of the many walls of the castle. Other corridors were plunged completely into darkness with the help of Peruvian Instant Darkness powder.

"We did it!" Demelza yelled as Ginny made her way further into the room. "The castle is in chaos!"

"Yeah, we did." Ginny smiled back at her friend as she made her way closer to her.

"It's even better than Fred and George's strike on Umbitch." Ginny felt her smile grow into an almost genuine one at Ritchie's words. "And, they deserve so much more."

"I'm not going to argue with that," she told the pair of them and even forced a small laugh as she continued, "they even make me miss the bitch. The only problem is we are now out of everything we have. Its lucky it's the Easter holidays soon as I'm going to have to try and get so many more products if we want to keep going until the end of the school year."

The party continued well into the early morning and it was nearly three o'clock when Ginny got back to her dorm. Another restless night's sleep took the place of any rest as she saw image after image of people she knew dead and even heard the words of teenaged Tom Riddle taunting her about her stupidity as she stood over Harry's dead body with nothing she could do to help him.

And there was no doubt about it, this time she did wake up her dormitory with her screams.

"NO!! HARRY! HARRY!" a panicked voice escaped into the air before she could stop it.

Cold tears flooded down her hot cheeks, stinging the cuts that she had on her face, just as they had done so many times before. Her breath was ragged as she let out her final quiet whisper, longing for him to hear her, "Harry!"

It had all been so real.

A good few minutes later, after a lot of deep, controlled breaths, her heart slowly managed to calm down and return to its normal pace. Staring around the room, she gradually began to come back to her senses. He was not dead, it was just a dream. If he had been killed she would have heard about it. The Daily Prophet would break that news, Voldemort's ministry would want that known and the Hogwarts Death Eaters would enjoy crushing their spirits with that news.

She pulled herself into a sitting position. She didn't want to sleep right now; she did not want to see all that again. She reached under her pillow and pulled out the worn photograph she had hidden there. Soft tears fell down her face as she watched Harry in the photograph grabbing her fifteen year old self around the waist and hugging her as he pulled her in for a kiss in one of those lost days that they had had down at the lake.

"Ginny," Demelza whispered.

She looked up to see that Demelza, Elizabeth and Amy were all looking at her. Staring with those worried looks that she had seen in their eyes so many times, too many times this year.

"I'm fine," she muttered.

"Ginny," Amy pushed her, wanting another answer, none of them bought the 'I'm fine' excuse anymore.

"I'm fine," she forced herself to reply, "It was just a dream."

"That's right," Elizabeth agreed with her, "just a dream, Harry's coming back, Ginny."

"I know," Ginny whispered.

"And he's coming back for you." Demelza added.

She just nodded. "You should all go back to sleep. We need to be awake to see what state the castle is in, in the morning."

Ginny turned over to face Emma Buxton's empty bed. Like so many times this year it had been much easier to look at Emma's bed and imagine that she was safe in some other country than it was to look at her other dorm mates who were still here and in danger. Slowly her mind started to relax. The feeling of loneliness came flooding back to her and in the dark, she realised that no matter how helpful and supportive people had been, she was completely alone here.

"Come back, Harry," she challenged him as she continued to look at the worn photograph. There he was, smiling back up at her like he didn't have a care in the world, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. "I'm not going to give up on you."

In the morning, she used a concealment charm on the photo and went down to breakfast with her very worried looking friends. Luckily, she was able to distract them from herself quite easily as it was still very obvious that Hogwarts was still in chaos with fireworks still whizzing into the Great Hall and many of the classrooms still inaccessible.

Lessons were still cancelled and the school utterly distracted, when Fred's owl Tugday appeared during breakfast on Saturday morning.

_Hey, Spitfire,_

_How are you?_

_Things are as well as can be expected at home. First I should let you know that there is still no change with Ron, but we are still hopeful. People have got through worse than this. Mum's still frantic and she's putting together all types of plans to go on holiday soon. And Dad is working so many hours at the Ministry he's coming home really drained. There is really no change either with Charlie or Bill and Fleur. George and I are okay, but the shop's been much quieter since so many of our regular customers have disappeared._

_School sounds interesting at the moment, so interesting that news of it has reached the wider world. There are lots of rumours flying round, not that you can believe many of them. Still it's worth staying wary of it all. Bludgers are not just on the Quidditch pitch. We want you to still be here to help out as unpaid labour in the shop this summer and not end up like some of our customers._

_Be careful, Ginny, and we really can't wait to see you soon._

_Your favourite brother,_

_Fred._

She carefully folded the letter and nodded at Neville who stood up straight away. Without saying a word to each other they headed past the fireworks that were still lingering, it appeared that the other Hogwarts professors were still unwilling to help clean them up, and up several flights of stairs.

Neville followed her into the Room of Requirement and she passed over the letter and waited very impatiently for him to finish reading it. Patience was a very overrated quality in her opinion. Neville took a full three minutes to read the letter, and maybe even reread it but it felt like it took a full half hour.

"Well," she said as soon as he placed the letter down, "What do you think? Not just about this. I mean, there's Harper too. Are they after us? And I don't mean like they have been, I mean like they were with Luna."

"Let's find out," he said as he reached over to the pot of Floo Powder that had just appeared above the fireplace, "call them."

She sank down to the fire and threw the Floo Powder in there seconds before placing her head in the fire. The flames swam around her head as she uttered 'Ninety-Three Diagon Alley.'

"Fred, George," she called.

"Ginny," George's voice came back even before he sank to the fire, "what the hell are you doing here?"

"Talking to you," she said with a small grin.

"You're in the Room of Requirement, right?"

She eyed him suspiciously. "What do you know?"

"Well when we were in Hogsmeade yesterday, we ended up in the Hogs Head for a couple," George said as she nodded, encouraging him to continue. "All the Death Eater talk was about the Weasley girl and the Longbottom boy, especially after last week. You need to be very careful; they're just waiting for final proof. You're just lucky you had detention the last time. They're coming for you and they want to shut you up."

"Got it," she nodded.

"Mum's doing her nut. She wants to run away with you during the holidays and she nearly has Dad convinced. He thinks it's just a matter of time until all this is revealed, anyway." He paused before he continued in a serious unGeorge sounding voice. "Things are bad, Ginny."

"Just tell them I'm okay," she urged.

"I will do as long as you stay okay. We're worried. Help us out a little and ease that worry. Just remember, there's a time for pranks and a time for care," George spoke in a more serious tone than he had ever used before. "We'll see you soon and look after yourself, okay?"

"Yeah, see you soon," Ginny repeated.

Her head was still spinning when she finally turned to face Neville. Yes, she was brave or at least she thought she was but there were very different types of bravery. Reacting was one thing, she was good at that. She could instantly jump into the action without thought but this was different. This was new and a much more grown up form of bravery. They were now about go head on into the battle knowing exactly what was on the cards. This was so much harder.

Nothing would change what they were doing; they just needed a good plan.

She looked directly at Neville. Her look must have said it all though as he just nodded back at her and she found herself quietly whispering as if even trying to hide the words from the Room of Requirement.

"What do we do now?"


	16. Midnight Flight

Chapter Sixteen: Midnight Flight

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

**Author's Note: **This chapter includes text directly taken from _Chapter Twenty-Two: The Deathly Hallows_ of _**Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows**_ – if you recognise the lines, they have not been written by me. That text has also been highlighted by being placed in bold text.

Neville paused thinking and she stared at him as she tried to rack her brain for ideas. If the Carrows came after her as they had done to Luna, while she was still at Hogwarts she was royally screwed. The secret passageways were closed off at the very start of term and even if she did make a run for there, there were still the Death Eaters in Hogsmeade; she did not need reminding of that. She couldn't Apparate out of the school because that was banned, not that she could Apparate anyway. One of her latest punishments had been to be banned from lessons. And even if she could get outside of these castle walls the fact that she still had 'The Trace' upon her would be very recognisable.

_Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!_

She looked back at Neville, hoping he would have something. He had proved to have a much cooler head than she did and he was so much better at handling all the chaos than she was.

"I think we have to cool it," Neville admitted after a while, "we're short on Weasley products anyway and it's safer that way."

"I guess," she replied.

She didn't like this idea too much because it was almost like admitting defeat.

It was hardly like going down fighting, to sit back and take a back seat now.

"It's almost as if we're going against them and their tactics the wrong way, I mean the day to day stuff is getting harder as it is, especially with them hitting back at us. We can't risk them losing it. If this is how thing are now imagine if they completely lost control and gave in to those base Death Eater instincts without thought of any repercussions." Neville paused and let out a long sigh. "We've underestimated them so far and we should never underestimate them again especially when it comes to cruelty."

"So we give up with the stunts," Ginny muttered, "it seems like almost giving in."

"No, we are just tactically regrouping," Neville smiled.

"But even if we give up the big stunts, we still need to help the first years," she said looking directly at him. "They don't deserve what's being done to them."

"None of us deserve this." Neville held her gaze. "You don't deserve to suffer either."

"I know that," she said softly as she pushed her point, not backing in here, "but we have to help them first."

"Agreed." Neville smiled. "So we still unchain them and free them from the curse detentions."

"Maybe it would be worth organising a patrol around the dungeons."

"That could work," Neville said as his smile grew, "and we'll keep up the graffiti, homework boycott and the refusal to do curses."

"And if they come for us?"

"Guess we run for here; the room never let us down before," Neville spoke softly.

"Apart from when Umbitch found us in here," Ginny pointed out, desperately trying to keep her voice flat and unemotional.

"We'll close the loopholes this time." Neville spoke in a reassuring voice.

Ginny gave him her slightly forced smile. "Just as long as no one else gets hurt."

She looked downwards and then reached for the hearth rug, if only to have something to do. She wove her hand in between the knots in the wool trying to untangle them. It felt like she wanted to pull things apart and just watch them untangle, to watch things fall apart just as her world had.

Time started to drag as things got harder and the end of March could not come soon enough for any of them.

Though they had no proof that the Carrows knew who was responsible for the disruption in the castle, for nearly a week they had come back hitting harder. All this made the castle a very dangerous place to be.

In response, The D.A.s actions became seriously toned down following both Neville's and Ginny's worried pleas. The looks on the faces of the other members made it clear at each meeting that if both Neville and Ginny were worried then things were bad. All stunts had been binned, not only did they not have the resources after the last stunt but they were worried over the repercussions. Detentions had become more frequent and had got much much worse over the last few weeks. The first detentions were not freak events; they were still being asked to curse the younger years and suffering greatly for their refusal. The D.A. took comfort in the fact that at least it was they who were being asked and not students who would have willingly cursed the younger students. The D.A. members were hurting and were left to unchaining those in the dungeons when they could and scrawling the odd piece of graffiti.

Even the hospital wing had been closed down and they were only allowed to receive treatment there if they had a signed note from the Carrows. Members of the D.A. in particular who were probably most in need of the hospital wing found the notes hardest to come by. The first thirty minutes of each meeting now included them learning to heal each other's injuries.

All they could do was try to survive.

Even walking down the corridors was getting hard. Some students, mainly those viewed as Death Eaters in training, had now taken to hexing people between classes and it was not just the hexes that hurt.

Perhaps even harder where the questions.

It was more than just the D.A. now firing questions at her about where Harry was. Those blows to the heart were hard to take every time someone asked her and she was forced to admit that she didn't know. Worse were those who had started to doubt him, the people who really did not know Harry. Those who wanted to know what on earth he was doing while people where dying in his place and there were those who even suggested that he had run away scared and had no intention of helping them.

She had earned detentions twice when the comments had got the better of her and she had fired back curses of her own resulting in a twelve hour stint chained in the dungeons, a broken right arm and several more deep gashes to her face as she refused to perform the curses that she was asked to.

The only small positive to this was that at least if she was suffering then others, namely younger much more innocent first years, weren't getting physically hurt.

They were suffering enough as it was. She already knew that she was not the only one suffering from nightmares this year. From the screams that she had heard on her way up to the sixth year dorm, it was clear that the younger students where suffering with them and since she couldn't sleep as it was, she had taken it in turns when she was not in detention to join the other members of the D.A. in comforting the younger students when they woke, lying to them by telling them that things would be okay. Although she had to admit, she was not nearly as good as Demelza, Lavender or even Romilda Vane at doing this, it was far too clear that she was hurt by lying to them.

If anything the tension was getting worse with each day that passed and she spent the last evening before the train trip staying up late until she had no choice but to fall asleep, getting far too pitying looks from the other Gryffindors in the common room. If she gave in to anything but exhaustion, she knew that she was going to have nightmares and not just those that she could attempt to dismiss about Harry dying but others about the train journey back. She could not fight the fear that they were going to come for her next, and with as bad as things were at school now, she thought a cell in Azkaban might offer some peace.

She watched as the copy of the _Daily Prophet_ she had thrown on the fire caught light. The flames even licked across Harry's face before blazing through the words 'Undesirable Number One' before falling into ashes in the grate. Just like newspaper, things in her life were falling into pieces.

"Ginny," a soft whisper met her ears.

"Yeah," she replied still staring into the fireplace.

Demelza's voice floated back to her. "You coming to bed? It's gone two."

"I'll be up soon," she muttered back.

"Don't be long," Demelza replied in soft but carrying tones, "we have a long trip tomorrow and you need to be awake for it."

Instead of turning around and following her friend, she pulled another page out of the copy of the _Daily Prophet_ and threw it into the fire grate. Despite what she had just said she had no intention of going up anytime soon. She instead watched as it hit its target and lit up, before doing the same again.

"Ginny," another voice called.

_Damn Demelza!_

She must have gone up to get Neville to talk reason to her. Demelza at times was becoming too good a friend, doing things because they would help her and ignoring her wishes. She guessed she should thank her for that but she did not feel the gratitude at the moment.

She was quite enjoying wallowing right now, thank you very much.

"Neville." This time she turned round as her friend came over to her.

"How you doing?" he asked as he sat beside her.

"I'm fine," she replied automatically.

"Ginny!" he lectured.

"Hey," she said as she hit his arm just as she would have done with any of her brothers, "I thought you'd agreed to stop 'Ginnying' me."

He laughed softly. "Yeah, I did, but you also agreed to stop giving out the 'I'm fine' response."

She held up her hands in mock surrender as she let a smile find its way to her lips. "Guess you have me there."

"How are you?" he asked again.

"Scared stupid," she confessed, in a fashion that she could only do with Neville. At least he really understood these words. "I'm just so worried. I mean, how long can Harry hold out? What if Ron or Hermione dies or someone else? What if they have done something to Luna? It's all I can think about, dream about."

"I know," he spoke so softly, before answering her questioning look with a single word. "Demelza."

That confirmed everything.

Why did she have to have such good friends at the moment? It would have been easier to isolate herself in this mess if she didn't have. It would have been easier to put up barriers and maybe, just maybe, people would have believed her 'I'm fine' line.

"Damn her," she muttered. "Guess that's why I can't go up. They're going to make it worse tonight. I'm scared for me. I'm scared for everyone on that train and about all this talk we keep hearing about going after the Weasley girl and the Longbottom boy. They know it's us and they want to stop us, they keep showing us that. What if they go for us on the train, just like they did with Luna? I'm scared shitless over what might happen tomorrow and I don't even want to admit it because that's selfish."

"It's not selfish to be scared, it's natural," Neville stared into the fire as he continued, "but it _will_ be okay."

"We don't know that," she argued in a soft voice that was so quiet it barely carried, "especially since everything points to it not being okay."

"Okay, I don't know that," he said his voice almost as quiet as hers at first but strengthening with renewed confidence. "But I _do_ know that you'll survive whatever they throw at you because you're one of the bravest, strongest people I know. The D.A. would not have lasted this long without you, its leader."

"No, Neville, it's you who are the leader now. Has been for months, I've been in detentions while you ran the meetings. They all admire you, look up to you, and with good reason." She forced a smile. "You can keep up the fight for Harry and the rest of the world."

"Don't start talking like that," he lectured. "Nothing will happen to you. We are…I am not going to let it. Now you should go to sleep before I'm forced to give you one of those dreamless sleeping potions that we stole from the hospital wing."

She slowly got to her feet. "Night, Neville."

"Night, Ginny."

As feared, she was not exhausted enough when she went to sleep. She woke several times, wishing she had the ability to lie to herself and hide from the reality of war. She just could not shake the feeling that something really bad was going to happen soon. The worst was the scream that woke all three of her dorm mates at sunrise. Ignoring their words of support, she got changed throwing the final few things into her trunk and headed downstairs. She was just not going to get any sleep after those visions, so she may as well give up even trying.

Within hours she was crammed into a compartment on the Hogwarts Express heading back to London and away from the hell that had taken over Hogwarts. Once again the D.A stuck together so that there were so many people in their compartments there was barely enough room to breathe let alone move.

Just as her friends were pulling out sandwiches for lunch, Ginny made her excuses and headed out into the hallway. She wandered aimlessly in the general direction of the toilets before stopping.

Blocking her pathway was Draco Malfoy and Ginny found herself reaching for her wand.

"Malfoy," she said through gritted teeth.

"Weaslette."

"Mind moving?" she asked as she tightened her hold on her wand.

"One moment," he said without moving an inch.

"What do you want?"

"I was just thinking," Malfoy smiled at her.

"Be careful," she shot back, "you would not want to give your brain cell too much work to do."

Malfoy gripped his hand on her wand and Ginny felt her muscles stiffen. "Don't you ever wonder what would happen if you respected your blood status?" He continued to smile. "You may have continued to look reasonably attractive instead of a like a punching bag."

Ginny forced herself to smile at him. "Don't you ever wonder what would have happened if you hadn't called those Death Eaters last year?" If possible, Draco's face paled. "You'd be safe and just have to worry about bullying the first years. You wouldn't be wondering about cursing or killing people. Not worrying about this good or evil battle."

Malfoy's grey eyes met her brown ones for the briefest of moments. As she watched them she saw that there was clearly something hiding amongst the grey but she was not sure what it was. It was a complex jumble of emotions and she was not sure how to read it. He appeared to be a good actor when it came to these things and she did not know him well enough to pick through the lines and read what he was really feeling.

"Get lost, Weaslette."

"Gladly," she replied with her forced cold smile as she pushed past him, taking great care to knock him into a wall.

She made her way slowly back to the compartment and her D.A. friends. She settled back into the seat by the window and looked aimlessly out at another knot of trees breaking up the fields, occasionally joining in with the conversation.

They arrived back at King's Cross with the compartment door only having opened a few times and without a single stop. It was still a relief however when they all ploughed off the platform and to the barrier.

Ginny scanned the station until she caught a glimpse of red. At least there was one advantage to Weasleys standing out in a crowd. There was her mother, standing again next to Augusta Longbottom, both with worried looks etched on their faces. She turned to Neville and saw him wave at his grandmother, before she fixed her grip around her trunk and pulled it over.

Molly automatically wrapped her arms around her daughter and held onto her tightly, making it hard for her to breathe. Normally she would have dropped in a witty comment about her mother killing her with her snake-like grip but this year she didn't. Instead she just let her mum hold her before slowly breaking away when her mum finally let go.

"See you, Nev."

"Yeah, bye, Ginny."

She smiled at him. "Make sure you look after yourself."

"Yeah, you too." Neville smiled back at her. "And use the coins if anything happens."

"Will do. But I should be 'just fine'." She spoke softly and in such quiet tones that even Neville could barely hear her. "Have a good holiday and see you soon."

Neville grinned at her words. "See you."

The pair of Weasley women headed back to The Burrow almost in silence after the hugs and the reassurance that despite the cuts and bruises she was now suffering that she was actually okay. At least this time she hadn't been in floods of both tears and blood on the meeting with her mum.

It was after her dad had come home from work looking worn and so, so old that conversation had finally happened.

"Ginny, this has to stop," her mother finally started.

"Mum!" she exclaimed, knowing where this was going automatically and wanting to stop it straight away.

"No, Ginny," her mum insisted, "listen to me. If we let you go back it all has to stop!"

"IF?"

"Yes, IF," her mum cut her off very quickly.

"Hogwarts is far from safe," her dad interrupted as she shot him a glare; they should try telling her something she did not already know. "Ginny."

"Don't you think I know that?" She shot back, not trying particularly hard to keep the level of sarcasm out her voice.

Her mother's brown eyes fixed her with an unnerving stare, one that almost made her want to back down straight away, before continuing. "Then why are you letting them hurt you so much?"

"Mum, they're Death Eaters, they live for cruelty." She spoke simply, there was no need to ham this up or even coat her voice with emotion; the words did that on their own. "If they don't come after us, they are going to go after someone else, like first or second years. At least we're old enough to fight back, to be able to cope with it all."

"But you're not, Ginny," Molly insisted, "you are underage. You are still just sixteen, you are a child. You are not fighting in this war yet."

"A child," she scoffed at the word, showing exactly how much distain she held for that word in relation to herself, "who has been through twice as much as people older than her. I've earned this fight, Mum!"

"Ginny," Arthur tried to appease her with his tone of voice.

"I don't," her mother had interrupted showing the same temper that Ginny had inherited, "think that you are old enough to make that decision yet. I am your mother and it is my job to protect you. You are making that job very hard at the moment."

"And I'm just doing what you always taught me, my mother taught me not to back down, to express my opinions and not to do something just because it was easy!" She could feel her own temper rising. "I'm doing what is right, Mum, what anyone else would do."

"And as you get older you will learn—" Molly started before Arthur interjected, "—that there are times to fight and others to hold back so you are ready to fight when the situation arises."

"I'm going back, Mum, Dad." She met her dad's eyes but not her mum's. Her dad seemed at least a little understanding. "I can't leave Neville and the rest to face this alone. It wouldn't be right."

She turned to leave without waiting for a reply and headed to the stairs. She knew that she would pay for heading upstairs without waiting or even giving her parents a chance to reply but she had not let her temper explode and let her frustrations fly out of control which they might have done. In fact, she thought she had handled the situation quite well, considering.

Ginny went to the stairs but instead of going up to her room, she paused and sat down, just as she had done so many times in the past. She used to sit here to catch up on the family gossip or to hear her parents' opinions over something. This year it was so she could find out what was going on with the war. Worse than being involved in this war, had to be being underage in this war and knowing what was happening but having the mere matter of a few months keeping her out of the action. Carefully she pulled out an Extendable Ear from her pocket and let it trail down to the kitchen.

"Molly, I know, I know," her father's voice soothed. "We've encouraged her to speak her mind and to stand up for what's right. We have to expect that she is going to react like this. If she hadn't, we'd have even been worried that she was just going along with everything that was happening."

"She's going to get hurt, Arthur."

"She is already hurting, Molly."

"I meant physically," her mother's voice sounded uneasy.

"Surely that can't be as bad as emotional pain." Her father took so long a pause that Ginny was positive that they were communicating without words. She would have to walk to Fred about putting some kind of camera on the Extendable Ears. "So often I wish I could turn the clock back to a time when I could make her pain go away with just a kiss and a hug, but things are much bigger now. Luckily, there is one thing I know for sure. She is her mother's daughter: spirited, opinionated and a fighter. She'll get through this, we all will."

"Arthur," her mother continued, before what sounded like the onset of tears.

That was too much. She could not let herself listen to this conversation unless she wanted her stomach to twist and feel guilt fill her body again and she did not want to feel guilty anymore. It was too much to feel like that every day even if the feeling was very justified.

Ginny disappeared into her room and ignored the trunk that she should be unpacking and headed straight over to the window. She sat on the ledge and let her feet hang just short of the tree outside. When she had been younger and even shorter, she had done this so she could escape from the house, slowly dropping onto the branch below before climbing down the tree and running to the broom shed. She had only ever once missed the tree and luckily Bill had been on a visit home to pick her up and help her and to fix her broken leg.

She was fixed with the desire to jump out the window and let herself climb down the tree. Maybe she could disappear for a few hours on a broom like she used to. Maybe she could just wander down to the pond. Doing something that would be reckless and take her away from the safety of The Burrow and put her back in danger. At least it would give her a chance to do something instead of staying still waiting for something to happen. She would love to take all her anger and frustrations out on a Death Eater now, any Death Eater.

Instead she stayed still and watched the sun set. She wasn't stupid and running after the Death Eaters or even walking out into the countryside on her own would be a very stupid thing to do.

She stayed on the window ledge just watching. The sun fell and went through all the shades of colour from yellow to red before it finally set and another day died away and was lost to this war. In fact, she was still there when her father made a small knock on her door and called her down to dinner.

Dinner was a quiet affair, which was unusual for the type of feast that her mother had cooked up. This amount of food normally meant that there were a lot of family members crammed into the small kitchen but tonight there was only her parents and George, who had just grinned at her when she had asked where his right arm was in reference to Fred's empty seat. It felt weird to see George without Fred, if just for a couple of hours. She couldn't remember the last time she had seen one of her twin brothers without the other or if she ever had.

The source of George's grin was revealed however when they gathered in the living room to listen to _Potterwatch_. First however, she found herself gasping at the news that Ted Tonks, Tonks' dad, and Dirk Cresswell had died and saw her father wrap his arm around her mum in comfort and found herself wishing Harry could do the same for her.

"Dean," the whisper escaped her lips at the next bit of news as George made his way closer to her and wrapped his arm round her.

"He'll be okay, Ginny," he spoke softly, "if he was dead they would have said so and they didn't."

She felt herself gasp again at news of Xenophilius Lovegood's arrest and her mind focused back to Luna. They should have done more to help her. And where was Luna now? If she had been arrested, surely they would have reported that Luna was in Azkaban just like her father now was.

Where on earth was she?

Ginny was hardly given time to let her mind dwell on that as Hagrid's name was mentioned.

"Hagrid," George spoke in a hollow voice.

"Thank God you're home," Molly whispered as Ginny turned to look at her mother. "Nothing would have stopped you going to a support Harry Potter party and then they would be after you too."

Ginny got to her feet and silently hugged her mother. "I'm here, Mum."

With that Ginny settled herself at her mother's feet just as she had done so often as a little girl occasionally glancing upwards to see her mum's reasonably contented smile as Molly rested her head on Arthur's shoulder. Things seemed more peaceful than they had in months.

"**I suppose it helps, when escaping from Death Eaters, if you've got a sixteen-foot-high half-brother?"** Lee's voice broke through the radio.

"**It would tend to give you an edge," agreed Lupin gravely. "May I just add while we here at **_**Potterwatch**_** applaud Hagrid's spirit, we would urge even the most devoted of Harry's supporters against following Hagrid's lead. 'Support Harry Potter parties are unwise in the present climate."**

Ginny felt an arm on her shoulder at the words that came from the radio.

"**Indeed they are, Romulus," said Lee, "so we suggest that you continue to show your devotion to the man with the lightning scar by listening to **_**Potterwatch**_**! And now let's move to news concerning the wizard who is proving just as elusive as Harry Potter. We like to refer to him as the Chief Death Eater, and here to give his views on some of the more insane rumours circulating about him, I'd like to introduce a new correspondent: Rodent."**

""**Rodent"?"** Fred's voice exclaimed through the radio.

Ginny met George's eyes across the room and they both escaped into a fit of giggles at the name. The third part of her trio was going to get some real ribbing for that nickname, especially since he was now protesting to be called "Rapier".

The laughter that she had barely been containing burst out, including tears, as Fred continued to make jokes about Voldemort. George even pounded the floor and she felt as if her own sides were going to split in two as Fred said. **"…but the fact remains he can move faster than Severus Snape confronted with shampoo when he wants to..."**

Fred arrived home late that evening carrying three large bottles of Firewhisky in a very triumphant mood after his debut show for _Potterwatch_, a mood that was promptly shot down by both Ginny and George with calls of "Rodent" and Ginny's hits as she demanded that he would never let the news catch up on her like that again if he knew what was going on, especially when it concerned one of her friends.

The evening went on very late, after that and almost entered into a party atmosphere. Arthur even turned a blind eye at his underage daughter drinking Firewhisky with her two brothers after his wife had gone to bed, if not before she had done so.

Ginny was not sure what time she headed back up to her room but it was late, very very late and she didn't bother to do anything other than collapse on her bed. And while she was sure that she must have got some sleep, it felt as if she had only had her eyes closed for two minutes when Bill, of all people, broke into her room.

"Ginny, wake up!"


	17. Hiding

Chapter Seventeen: Hiding

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

Within minutes her trunk had been shrunk and she was in the kitchen. It suddenly became very apparent how ready her mother was for the run into hiding, with the pile of trunks that were already assembled there in just the space of a few minutes. Her mother was completing several spells with Bill and Fred and George both to pack and protect the house as best they could, while her dad was running around picking up a few things.

"We're ready," Arthur said just moments later, "but before we go, Ginny, from now onwards, whatever happens, with the Trace on you, you cannot do any magic. We can't take the risk."

"Yes, Dad," she nodded.

Arthur looked at her so sternly that she would have done anything he asked just then. "We're going to your Auntie Muriel's. Take your mother's arm."

Ginny touched her mother's arm and without any time to even say goodbye to their home she was side-along Apparated out of there. Just seconds later she landed in the large gardens of her Auntie Muriel.

She ended up staring at the grand house as her mother made her way up and had a hushed conversation with her great aunt. She had hated this house growing up. It had meant that she was put into little dresses and made to behave herself at her mother's very vocal requests when they were growing up. She doubted very much that she was going to like it much better now.

With small pops her dad and three brothers appeared.

"We got out in the nick of time," Fred told her. "There were Ministry guys turning up even as we left, they were so ready."

"Yeah, you should get in the house, Ginny." She sent a George a sceptical look as he spoke. "I'm serious, Ginny."

"We have to set up the charms, Ginny," Bill said in an apologetic tone. "It won't be safe till we do and you can't really help with any of that."

"Come on, Ginny," Fred said as he took her arm. "Now you aren't the only one being left out," he explained as he led her up to the house, carrying a couple of trunks in his arms. "Let Dad and Bill take care of all this, eh?"

Things were chaos for nearly an hour as they got things settled before her dad and Bill finally came into the large living room. They were both quickly ushered into chairs as Arthur explained that they had put up a Fidelius charm and that she would not be going back to school, nor would they be going back to work, not until the war was over.

After her dad had finished talking he turned to Bill. "I think it's time you fill us in on everything else."

"The evening was mad really. Me and Fleur were just ready to go to sleep when our alarms went off so I grabbed my wand off the bedside table and looked out the window to see people outside. Naturally, Fleur and I both darted downstairs to see Mr Ollivander along with Dean Thomas and Luna Lovegood in our garden."

"Mr Ollivander?" Bill nodded at his mother's words. "How is he?"

"Not the best. Looks like he's been tortured for months," her oldest brother admitted, "but Fleur will see him right."

"Dean and Luna?" Ginny questioned and Bill nodded. "Are they okay?"

"They're fine. As I said, Ollivander is not the best but the other two will be fine." Bill gave a brief smile before continuing, "Then moments later, Ron turned up supporting Hermione who looked like she had been cursed." Ginny felt herself give an involuntary shudder that was noticed by the others in the room if the looks she was given showed anything. "And Harry emerged with Dobby, the house-elf, who had died and Griphook, a goblin I used to know from Gringotts."

"Harry," Ginny breathed.

Bill looked at her and she could see the pity in his eyes. "He's fine, upset and digging a grave for the house-elf right now but okay."

She ignored Bill's look and fixed him with a glare. "Promise me they are fine."

"They're fine," he looked at her this time as an equal and not as a little sister, "Ginny, I promise."

Bill had further conversations with their parents but she barely heard them. She knew all she needed to know now. Much later as the sun was rising the next day she flopped into the bed in the room she had been allocated and she slept--really slept. Her parents, brothers, Harry, Neville, Hermione and Luna were all safe tonight for the first time in such a long time.

She got up well into the afternoon and finally opened her trunk. Doing what felt natural, she pulled out quill, ink and parchment and moved it over to the desk.

_Dear Harry,_

_I can't even think of the words to say about how good it is to know that you're okay or the level of relief that I'm feeling at the moment. All the words I can write do not seem to do that justice. And it's not just you being okay but also Ron, Hermione, Dean and Luna. I guess it's just Neville we have to worry about now. I sent him a message telling him I won't make it back after the Easter holidays and he said it's okay but it still doesn't feel right. I can leave that guilt trip for another two weeks though, since he's not going back till then, anyway._

_And I can't focus on all that yet, not when I've just got you back, well kinda have anyway. I'm dying, dying to talk to you, see you, find out what you have been up to since the wedding. So much has happened since then and I dread to even think about telling you about my year, I'm afraid you'll fly into Hogwarts in one of your fits of stupid nobility. Not that after some of my performances I should jib you too much. But knowing how you react, we should probably hold off on that meeting until after my latest cuts have healed and you've finished what you've started._

_As I said to Hermione before the wedding, I know you're up to something and I'm guessing that considering your sudden appearance and the fact that Voldemort is still around that it isn't over yet. And I am okay with not knowing, at least for the moment. I trust you, Harry, and believe in you._

_Will you make sure you give that git of a brother of mine a hug and Hermione my love. Tell Dean that I am so glad that he is okay. I wouldn't ever want anything to happen to him. And Luna. Luna. Please tell her how ever so sorry I am for the way I behaved on the train and that I let her be taken. I swear one day I will make that up to her but I have no idea how I can. I will work something out, I promise. Oh, and please tell her she is the best friend that a girl could ever have. I know I will never be able to thank her enough for keeping me sane and stopping me from completely losing it. _

_I will see you soon and please look after yourself._

_Love,  
_

_Ginny._

She was not sure when she had started signing these fake letters, 'love, Ginny' but it had almost seemed okay when Harry had been so far away, lost into the countryside of Wizarding Britain, but now he was just at Bill and Fleur's. If she wanted to, for the first time, she could give him her letters and a very large part of her wanted to.

However, all that brought the love question into the air.

Did she actually love him?

She knew the relationships with Michael and Dean had been left to run their course. She had broken up with them after she knew it was all over but with Harry it had been different. Harry's damn nobility had forced them to break up their relationship when things were just getting started and who knew whether it was really love or had not got to the stage when she would have broken up with him too?

No, this was not like with Michael or Dean. All of her knew that but how much more it was she didn't know; she was much in uncharted territory now.

Ginny paused before burning the letter with her wand. She did not want to do this when she could actually give it to him. She turned and threw the ashes out the window of her room. It would not be fair to give it to him while he had a job to do and she should not distract him from that.

It would not help her or him.

Her eyes focused out the small window on the small pond. If she squinted it was almost like looking out from the windows at Gryffindor Tower to the Hogwarts lake. She quickly and without thinking made her way down to the garden.

Ginny sat in Auntie Muriel's large garden. The spring sun was shining down on her but it did not make her feel any warmer. She pulled her hands tightly around her feet and hugged her knees into her chest, holding herself together, holding the warmth in. Her eyes barely focused as she stared at the pond at the end of the straight grassy lawns.

She had spent so much time last year on the grassy fields under the trees and by the Hogwarts lake that if she closed her eyes she could see herself back there. If she squinted and let her imagination run free, she could see herself back there starting to fall in love with Harry.

Ginny shook her head. No, No, No. That could not be true. All they'd had together was months.

But none of that stopped the tricks that her heart was playing on her.

She stared out at the pond again, ignoring the problems of her heart and listening just to the reason in her head. The pond here was just a pond that they had found tadpoles in and watched as the twins had hidden them in Auntie Muriel's fridge. She hid the grin before her thoughts turned back to Harry.

"Hey, Spitfire," Fred's voice drifted over her.

"Rodent," she muttered in reply, not looking upwards or even shifting her gaze slightly.

"Hey," her older brother said as he hit her softly on her arm and she rocked slightly, still not responding. "Ginny?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay?" Concern flooded his voice.

She nodded automatically. "I'm fine."

"Ginny!"

"Okay, I'm not fine," she paused meeting his eyes briefly. "I'm just wondering."

"About?"

"I'm trying to work out how you know when you're in love." She turned and actually looked at him. "How do you know you're in love?"

Fred looked back at her. "I'm not sure, Ginny." She felt her own head bowing, disappointed. "It's only 'cause I reckon I never really have been. But I'm not sure that's the same for you, Ginny." She looked back at him directly. "I've watched you. I've seen the way you look after him, the way your face changes. You're not that good an actress, Ginny. You have never been able to fool me or George. Ginny, we taught you all your tricks. We know when you're trying to hide something, when you're up to some prank or when you've fallen in love with a boy." Ginny raised her eyebrows at him. "If you're holding your breath for any news on him, I reckon you're in love and since you asked the question, I reckon you know you are too. You're just lucky it's Harry you're in love with."

"Excuse me?" She glared at him while he spoke. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, Ginny. If anyone other than Harry had hurt you this much, all six of us would have killed him." Fred grinned at her. "In fact, we're not at all sure whether we're going to let Harry get away with hurting you this much."

"Harry's just tried to protect me." She found herself trying to defend him without thinking about what she was saying.

Fred laughed softly. "Yeah, and don't you even deny that that hasn't hurt you even more. We've got a clearer picture on this than either you or Harry think we do. I know you, Ginny, and I know Harry, and don't repeat this but even with all that, I think he's the only one good enough for you." Ginny gave him a small smile. "Now are you going to do something useful?"

Ginny tilted her head. "Like what?"

"Help us with the shop." Fred grinned at her. "We're going to offer a mail order service."

She eyed her brother, forcing herself to keep her face straight," If I'm going to test the products, I want a share in the profits and to see you or George testing the same product first."

"Fine," Fred said through gritted teeth as he offered her his hand.

"To work then." She let him pull her up, only looking down fleetingly at the pond, before following him back into the house.

Ginny spent the rest of the holiday with Fred and George either tormenting Auntie Muriel since, no doubt, she too had now been written out of her great aunt's will, working on products for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and very occasionally going flying. However, trips out on her broom were a rarity, she still loved the feeling that flying gave her. Nothing was ever going to replace the sheer thrill that she felt when she took flight and felt the wind in her hair but the guilt when she landed was not worth it.

She should not be having fun at the moment, not while so many others were suffering.

The Sunday that signalled the end of the holidays was a long day and filled with guilt. She understood why she could not go back and through the D.A. coins Neville had told her that he understood too, and had even been expecting it but none of that made things any easier. She was doing the one thing that she had sworn that she would never do which was hiding while she let others fight and suffer for her.

As she had tried to explain things to her parents, at least if she was getting hurt she knew other people weren't. At least she knew what she was messing with when she fought against the Hogwarts Death Eaters. She wasn't sure she could say that for others and even if she could, it was not fair that they were facing this all alone now.

She hated, hated, hated standing on the sidelines, being still and watching things happen around her. She did not have the patience for stillness; she had to be involved in the action.

The completely irrational thought of joining the rest of the D.A. despite the huge risks had crossed her mind so often that day. However every time she experienced those split seconds of madness she squashed them. No doubt after they had all gone into hiding there would be a price on her head. If walking into Hogwarts had been dangerous earlier that year, now it would have been as bad as walking up to Thicknesse and telling him that she knew where Harry was and would he please remove the ten thousand Galleon price for her boyfriend's head, thank you very much.

So despite the feeling of utter hopelessness and guilt that had been growing daily she stayed put and did not raise any fights with her parents over a return. She wasn't stupid and she could be patient, she guessed, even if it was killing her. At least knowing that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Luna were all safe, had caused her nightmares to ease.

"Ginny," she heard her mother's voice the next morning.

"Hmm," she replied, not looking up from her toast.

She had heard her mum use that tone many, many times and it never boded anything good. It normally meant that her mum wanted help with something that Ginny would not be particularly keen to help with. She was not in the mood to help with one of the tasks that no doubt she was about to be asked to perform so she kept her face downwards. Maybe if her mum saw her eating she wouldn't bother her too much. Granted, the lectures about her loss of weight had not been as bad as those at Christmas but they were still there.

"Ginny."

"Mum."

She looked up this time. She had no choice without facing another lecture, this time about her lack of attention and rude behaviour. She was not stupid and was not going to let her mother achieve a full blown rant. She had learnt from a very young age how much her mother loved to give a good lecture and how important it was to cut her off early on. She also knew how much those rants had grown this year added to, no doubt, by fear and worry about what was happening in the outside world. She was not going to let her go off on that kind of rant this morning, not by any means.

What awaited her was much worse though than a lecture from her mother. That would have been over at the very worst within hours. This looked like it was going to take much longer to get through.

"What the hell is all that?" She gestured that the pile of parchment and the mountain of books that had been placed on the kitchen table. "I thought I wasn't going back to Hogwarts."

"That may be but you will not be neglecting your NEWT studies and you are not giving up on your education," Molly explained as she waved her wand making quill and ink appear. "I spoke to Minerva, Poppy, Horace, Filius and Remus and they put together schemes for you."

Ginny glared at the pile. "I didn't do _that_ much work at school this year." She muttered.

"I know you didn't," her mum said in a louder voice picking up on her words. "So it looks like you have a lot of work to do now."

Ginny watched her mother leave before slowly pulling a book over to her. She was not the worst student in the world, her dedication to her OWL revision would have rivalled Bill's if not Percy's, but the world was different now and it was not as if she would be able to take the NEWTs next school year in the current climate anyway. She really just couldn't see the point of spending her months in hiding studying from the books. There was even less point to that than there was of going to classes in the Death Eater run Hogwarts.

Truthfully, she knew there was not too much point in studying while she was hiding and she would much rather be in the gardens. She had drawn three circles on the wall to play 'spot' with a battered old Quaffle. She had already spent hours throwing the Quaffle into the circles and keeping the game going for a long time without spelling out the word. Or failing that she could have done something semi useful and helped Fred and George in the back room with their products.

She knew that she would not be allowed out of the kitchen before she had done some work. She knew her mother too well and it was all about picking your battles. This was not a battle that was worth fighting yet.

She slowly picked up the quill and pulled the Defence Against the Dark Arts book towards her. At the very least she could make some notes of some useful spells that might help and make it look like she was working.

"Ah look at 'ickle Ginny," Fred's voice pulled her up out of the book less than half an hour later. "Such a good girl. Sitting doing her school work."

"Shut it," she growled as she sent him back a two fingered salute.

"Ginny!" Her mother's voice scolded as she appeared as if from thin air, at the worst possible time. "Would you like me to hex your fingers together?"

"Sorry, Mum," she muttered, waiting for her mother to leave before crumpling up a piece of parchment and throwing it straight into Fred's face. "You git! You could have warned me."

"Nice shot," George commented.

Fred just grinned. "Now where's the fun in that?"

"The fun is that you must have seen her behind me and now I'm going to have to do twice the work before she lets me off," Ginny moaned, looking back at the pile of work. "Git!"

"Oh, Ginny," Fred said as he held open his arms and shrugged, "you know you don't mean that. I _am_ your favourite brother after all."

Ginny scoffed. "I did and just you wait until I'm of age or we're not in hiding so I don't have to worry about the trace when I want to get you back."

Fred grinned at George and then turned back to her. "I'm scared," he mocked.

"You should be," she shot back before changing her face to be innocent butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth look and smiling sweetly at him. "I'd avoid me for the whole of August if I was you and I have almost six months to come up with my plans too."

George laughed before clapping his hand on Fred's back. "I think she means it, mate," he said before he offered her a grin. "Join us in the back room when you're done."

Weeks passed slowly, far too slowly, and the level of frustration that not only Ginny was feeling grew.

As April was drawing to an end plans were made for Mr Ollivander to arrive at the house. They all knew that it made sense for him to come and Auntie Muriel could not find grounds to complain, although she had passed a comment that she was sure that someone of her own age would make a much better house guest than either Fred or George. In her opinion he would be much quieter and much more grateful.

Mr Ollivander looked so frail when he arrived he could barely stand and gripped her brother's arm for support. Bill grinned at them when he placed the large suitcase down before helping him into a chair.

"Muriel, thank you so much," he greeted her.

"Mr Ollivander," Muriel responded, "it so good to see you. And you are very welcome." She glared at Fred and George. "I'm sure you will not be running an Owl Order business in my back room."

"No, no my dear, I just want to recuperate." He nodded curtly before asking,

"Wand still treating you well, I trust."

"Very well." She graced him with a rare smile.

He reached into his cloak and pulled out a worn velvet case. "This young man's enchanting wife asked for me to return this."

Muriel opened the box and inspected the tiara before closing it. "Thank you, I thought it had been stolen." She muttered, "French." before turning to face Ollivander with a large smile. "Now, what can I get you?"

Bill, once he had made sure that Ollivander was settled, turned away from his great aunt and to his mother. He kissed her on the cheek then made his way over to Arthur and hugged his father.

"How is everyone?" he asked.

"Things are well." Arthur told him. "How are things at Shell Cottage?"

"Crowded, but good. Everyone's okay," Bill dropped his voice, "even if Harry, Ron and Hermione are up to something."

"What?" Ginny said as her brother's words caught her attention.

Bill smiled at her. "He doesn't like sitting around. He seems to want to get back into the action, but you know that better than me."

She did and needed to know what was going on with him and not just so she could get back involved with the action herself. She was desperate now to go with her oldest brother. She wanted to go back to Shell Cottage with him and hug Harry or even just touch him, to check that he was really there. She just wanted to check that he was okay and to make sure that they did nothing stupid.

"Ginny," Bill interrupted her thoughts.

Thoughts screamed at her. She had so many ways to reply to him, but she was not sure where to start. There was so much she wanted to say to him, she would give anything to talk to him, to any of them.

"Can you tell him, tell all of them, including Dean and Luna," she paused, still not sure how to put this into words. "Just give them my love, okay?"

"I will do but I better be getting back." Bill turned with his apologies to his mother. "I don't want to be away from Fleur too long."

"Say hello from us as well," Molly told her son. "And take care of yourself."

With that Bill turned to leave and Ginny made her way to the window, watching him Disapparate in the garden. It took all her self control not to run after him. It would be so easy to run after him.

She dully watched as her mother fussed around Mr Ollivander and made dinner for them.

Much later into the night, things settled down.

There was a bang on the front door and everyone's heads turned towards it. Fred and George rushed down the stairs, Molly dropped the mug she was carrying and Arthur picked up his wand. Ginny herself was silently cursing herself for leaving her own wand upstairs by her trunk. Since she wasn't able to use it so much, and the fact she was now in hiding, she had stopped carrying it round as much but instead of ducking behind a wand carrying family member, she froze. She was not going to hide any more than she was already being forced to do.

"Who is it?" Her dad called.

"It is I, Remus John Lupin!" called the voice from the other side. "I am a werewolf, married to Nymphadora Tonks, and you told me the address and asked me to come in case of emergency."

Ginny's heart fluttered and the thrill of excitement coursed through every bone, licking over them as the fire had done when curses had been sent her way at school. What had happened? Why was Remus here? Why was he taking the risk and what could he tell them about what was happening in the world outside this house?

"Remus," Arthur whispered as he wrenched open the door.

Lupin fell over the threshold. His cheeks were flushed as though he had already had several drinks, he was wrapped in a travelling cloak and his greying hair was windswept. He straightened up and looked around the room, a broad grin lighting up his face and making him look much younger and happier than Ginny had ever seen him, even on his wedding day.

"It's a boy! We've had a boy!" Remus exclaimed. "Named him Ted, after Dora's dad, he's a great wizard in the making, little Teddy Remus Lupin." Lupin beamed at them. "Already changing his hair colour."

"Dora's had the baby," Molly cried in delight.

"Yes, yes, a boy, a son," Remus repeated, "Teddy, my little Teddy."

Cries of delight bounced off even the kitchen walls as hugs were freely thrown around. She even heard her dad laughing, which was a rarity in itself these days. The news had taken away the gloom that had been hovering over them for so long. The festive atmosphere took over the room and even Muriel smiled with delight.

Ginny turned to watch her father as he opened a bottle of wine. "The fun starts now," he laughed. "Especially if they are anything like my lot."

"Arthur, if my son grows to be half the person that your seven have, I will be very very proud."

"Thank you," Arthur said softly, "and should anything happen, trust me, we will repeat the promise that you made to Molly and me; we will look after him."

"Dad?" Ginny questioned as she made her way over. She wanted to hear more of this conversation.

"Ginny?"

She studied the faces of her father and her old teacher. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing, Ginny. You are all safe in hiding." Arthur reassured her before smiling at Lupin. "This one deserves the nickname her brothers have given her. Hopefully Teddy will be less of a handful than our own little spitfire."

"Ginny," Lupin said as he took her arm, his attention turned on her for the first time. "Can I talk to you?"

"Of course, Professor." It may have been years since he had taught her but she had still been unable to drop the Professor tag with Lupin. She would not lose that level of respect.

"How is the Defence Against the Dark Arts studying going?" She bowed her head as she was still avoiding work and doing the token level that she could get away with. "It is important to read these spells, Ginny. At any time, knowledge is power and even more in a time of war. You are not ignorant or stupid, Ginny, trust me. Reading up on spells will help you."

"Yes, sir," she said feeling suitably abashed.

"Good." He smiled at her and said, "The last thing I would want Teddy's godmother to be is ignorant. And please stop calling me 'sir', it's Remus."

"Teddy's godmother," she spluttered, focusing in on only one part of her old teacher's speech.

"It makes complete sense, Ginny, especially since Harry has already agreed to be godfather. We want someone who is Harry's equal, and is going to be around Harry for a long time, and I can think of no one better than you for that job." His smile grew. "And Dora agrees; she really admires you. Will you say yes?"

Ginny froze for a moment, not really sure what to say. It was an honour to be asked, a huge honour at that, and she was not sure she would be any good at the job. Surely there were much more suitable people. But then there was the way Lupin was looking at her, and more the way he was treating her--as an equal.

How could she say no?

She'd just have to learn to do the job over time. And besides, she would not be alone. There was Harry but more importantly there was still Tonks and Lupin; they would look after Teddy and she could just help a little.

She spoke so quietly the words were lost into the air but Remus clearly heard them. "Of course."

"And, Ginny, two more small things."

"Yes, sir."

"I know you feel as if things will never work out again, and never be the same again, but I know both you and Harry. I know the pair of you will get through this." She just shrugged in response; she could not let herself hope like that. "And finally Ginny, please start calling me Remus."

"Yes, sir." He looked at her. "Yes, Remus," she repeated with a small smile even if those words sounded so alien in her mouth, they felt good.

Wine was passed around well into the early hours of the morning, even with Lupin protesting that he must get back. As the day faded away and turned into the next one, Lupin finally threw the travelling cloak over his shoulders and headed for the door promising to come back in a few days with photographs.

After Lupin's appearance, time slowed down again. Ginny did spend more time reading the school books than she had earlier. Who knew what spell they might need in battle so she knew she had better be prepared.

She occasionally sent messages to Neville and got very brief replies back. She was positive that he was shielding her from the whole truth of what was going on at Hogwarts only admitting that they had gone to live in the Room of Requirement as planned.

The 1st May was not a remarkable day when she got up. She did some work, her token amount, and was in the back room when the D.A. galleon glowed.

'Harry's back, time to fight.'


	18. Call To Arms

Chapter Eighteen: Call To Arms

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

Author's Note: This chapter includes lines from _**Deathly Hallows**_ chapters _Twenty-Nine: The Lost Diadem,____Chapter Thirty: The Sacking of Severus Snape,_ and _Chapter Thirty-One: The Battle of Hogwarts._ Any text you recognise is not mine. This text has been placed in bold text. If ellipses have been used, I have skipped some of the text from the book.

A flurry of activity took over the room as the coin lit up. The fight was really on and they were going back to fight. Whatever was about to happen, this hellish year was about to be over.

"The fight is on." Ginny turned to Fred. "How do we get in there?"

"Hog's Head." Fred said quickly, as if he had had a plan formed in his head for months for when this moment came. "Let me just get a message to Lee."

Ginny focused on George as Fred got out his old D.A. coin. She fixed him with the same fierce look that her mother had used on the seven of them so many times. "I may not be able to Apparate but you're not leaving me here."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Fred replied taking the lead as he pocketed his coin.

George frowned slightly. "Guess the only question is how we get her past Mum."

"Smuggle her out." Fred grinned at the pair of them. "What Mum doesn't know can't kill us."

The three of them walked downstairs as quickly as they could without getting their mother to bounce out from wherever she currently was. They gave Auntie Muriel a quick response that they were off to play Quidditch as she questioned them before breaking into a run and heading out to the protection of the garden.

They found Lee already arguing with a very ratty looking Aberforth when they got to the Hogs Head. He was clearly annoyed that he could no longer go to sleep and that his bar had now becoming a railway station but Ginny ignored his moans as the landlord showed them up the stairs to the room with Ariana's portrait and pointed it out to them.

Ginny clambered up onto the mantelpiece and through the hole behind Ariana's portrait. There were stone steps on the other side. The passage looked old, as if had been there for years. She took the corridor at a sprint, the other three trailing behind her. She didn't want to be held up for a single second, she needed to be back in Hogwarts as fast as she could get there. They turned a corner and there ahead of them was the end of the passage. Ginny took the short flight of steps that led to a door just like the one hidden behind Ariana's portrait.

Taking a deep breath, she prepared herself and let her two brothers and their best friend catch up. Nerves overtook her standing there for a few moments. Nerves that had been masked by her adrenaline were now at the forefront of her mind. This was it. It was really it and she was going to get a chance to fight.

"Let's get this show on the road." Fred put his hand on her shoulder. "Ginny."

She glanced back at him. "Yeah, let's."

Ginny climbed through the hole in the wall, closely followed by Fred, George, and Lee Jordan. She could hardly wait to get back in there, every bone was itching to get back to action. She had been in hiding for far too long and now that it was actual war she could even let go of the reigns a bit. Even though she knew it was wrong, a part of her was now desperate to give the Carrows the same treatment they had given to others and now she could do that.

She hardly recognised the Room of Requirement, it had been less than two months yet it had already changed so much. It was huge; hammocks in a variety of different colours hung from the ceiling proving that the D.A. really were living here. How bad had things got for there to be that many hammocks? The walls were covered with tapestries of the gold Gryffindor lion, the black badger of Hufflepuff, and the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw. There were bookcases stuffed with a mixture of textbooks, defence books and even some fiction. A few broomsticks including her own that Snape had taken were resting against the walls and in the corner stood a large, wood-framed wireless, her former lifeline.

Most important was the person standing in the centre of the room. There was Harry. His hair looked longer and very dishevelled, his clothes were ripped and those deep green eyes looked more troubled than Ginny wanted to see. But still this was Harry, her Harry, and he was magnificent just the way he was. It was taking all her willpower just to stand there and not run over to him. That was not what he needed now. Not while he was just about to head into war. Instead she settled for smiling at him, using the smile she reserved only for him, the one that made her heart leap.

"**Aberforth's getting a bit annoyed," said Fred, raising his hand in answer to several cries of greeting. "He wants a kip, and his bar's turned into a railway station." **

Ginny had barely moved out of the way of the portrait hole when just behind Lee came Harry's old girlfriend, Cho Chang. A pang of jealously hit her when Cho smiled at Harry.

Damn irrationality, Harry did not like Cho; he hadn't in years. But how hard was it to ask for just a few minutes alone with him before being interrupted especially by Harry's old girlfriend.

"**I got the message,"** Cho called as she held up her D.A. Galleon and went to sit next to Michael Corner.

"**So what's the plan, Harry?" said George. **

"**There isn't one," said Harry. **

Ginny looked at Harry's face and something clicked. He didn't want any of this. He had that look of stupid, determined nobility. Damn it. Damn him. He wanted to do this alone. She should have known this would be the case but then he also should know that they were never going to let him face this alone.

"**Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favourite kind," said Fred. **

"**You've got to stop this!" Harry told Neville. "What did you call them all back for? This is insane –" **

"**We're fighting, aren't we?" said Dean, taking out his fake Galleon. "The message said Harry was back, and we were going to fight! I'll have to get a wand, though –"**

"**You haven't got a wand–?" began Seamus**_. _

Harry turned away and spoke in a very low voice to Ron and Hermione. She could only hope that they were talking some sense into him. She just wished she could hear what they were saying. It was much easier to stop herself from feeling frustrated about being isolated when it was not happening right in front of her.

She tried her best to ignore this as she hugged Neville, he looked so much worse now. It was the first chance she'd really had to take in the state of her fellow D.A. members.

How bad had things got at school?

"Are you okay?" she asked him in a low voice.

"I'm fine," he muttered with a small grin.

"Hey," she said as she hit his arm, "that's my line. I thought it was a banned line at that."

Neville laughed. "I missed you, Ginny."

"Same here." She grinned at him before her face quickly changed as she studied Neville's. "What's really been happening here?"

"Just put it, be glad you went into hiding," he said softly, "which looks like it has agreed with you**–**no more cuts, bags under the eyes and you look like it would actually take more than a feather to knock you over now."

"Neville!"

He grinned at her. "Don't 'Neville' me."

She laughed. "Also my line but you can have it." She smiled. "I get that, no 'Nevilleing'. But after the war's over you tell me everything. There's already enough people keeping secrets from me, for my own safety. Not that it's kept me very safe."

Neville shrugged his shoulders slightly as he gave her another of those knowing looks. "They probably have good reason."

She smiled softly. "Which is why I'm not pressing it."

She barely listened to Fred and George's jokes as she made her way over to Luna. Nor did she pay too much attention to the fact that Harry seemed to have broken into Gringotts and escaped on a dragon if the current noise was to be believed. She needed to see Luna first, other conversations could wait. She hugged her for what had to be at least a full minute before settling in on a chair. Luna perched on the side of it before turning to her to start a much needed conversation; it had been months and so much had happened since they'd last had a chance to talk.

"**Okay," **Harry** called to the room at large. **

Silence fell almost instantly, putting a stop to any conversation she was going to have with her friend. Everyone else was ready to act as well. You could have heard a pin drop and it was clear from the looks on the rest of the D.A. faces that they were excited.

This was really it.

"**There's something we need to find," Harry said. "Something – something that'll help us overthrow You-Know-Who. It's here at Hogwarts, but we don't know where. It might have belonged to Ravenclaw. Has anyone heard of an object like that? Has anyone come across something with her eagle on it, for instance?" **

Harry looked towards the little group of Ravenclaws in the room. He had that hopeful look in his eyes. Ginny glanced towards Padma, Michael, Terry, and Cho, looking for the answer to that question herself. But more importantly she wanted answers to her own questions.

Why had Dumbledore wanted Harry to have the sword of Gryffindor?

Why did Harry need something of Ravenclaw's?

Was there a link between the two founder's objects that Harry needed? Why did he need both the sword of Gryffindor and some Ravenclaw object?

What on earth had he been up to?

And how could she help?

"**Well, there's her lost diadem." Luna answered. "I told you about it, remember, Harry? The lost diadem of Ravenclaw? Daddy's trying to duplicate it." **

"**Yeah, but the lost diadem," said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, "is lost, Luna. That's sort of the point." **

"**When was it lost?" asked Harry. **

"**Centuries ago, they say," said Cho... "Professor Flitwick says the diadem vanished with Ravenclaw herself. People have looked, but,…nobody's ever found a trace of it, have they?" **

Ginny looked up hopefully at Luna and then at the rest of the knot of Ravenclaws. She may have no clue what was going on, but if Harry was asking it had to be important. He hardly cared about history even when he had the time to do the research, so why the hell was it so important now?

She watched as all the Ravenclaws shook their heads.

"**Sorry, but what **_**is**_** a diadem?" asked Ron. **

"**It's a kind of crown," said Terry Boot. "Ravenclaw's was supposed to have magical properties, enhance the wisdom of the wearer." **

"**Yes, Daddy's Wrackspurt siphons –"**

Harry interrupted Luna. This clearly was important if he was cutting off Luna. He was not normally that rude. **"And none of you have ever seen anything that looks like it?"**

She couldn't help but feel a little disappointed to see them shake their heads again. How could they not know where it was? And why, damn it, did Harry need the one thing that may just be impossible to find, but that was Harry all over for you wasn't it?

**Cho spoke again. "If you'd like to see what the diadem's supposed to look like, I could take you up to our common room and show you, Harry. Ravenclaw's wearing it in her statue." **

Harry looked at Cho and another pang of irrational jealously hit her. She didn't want him looking at her, not yet anyway. After all this time she wanted Harry to be looking at her, spending time with her. Her heart and a sense of longing seemed to have all but taken over her.

"**Listen, I know it's not much of a lead, but I'm going to go look at this statue, at least find out what the diadem looks like. Wait for me here and keep, you know – the other one – safe." **

Cho stood up as if to take Harry to the Ravenclaw common room and all reason went out of Ginny's system. She knew she was being irrational, but right now she did not care. There was no way that Cho was taking him. The former Ravenclaw had already taken one of her boyfriends, Michael Corner, and she'd be damned if she'd let her take Harry back, even for just a moment. There was no way in hell, Cho was going with him; she was not getting Harry back.

"**No, Luna will take Harry," **Ginny interrupted, stopping the older girl in her tracks with her rather fierce tone of voice. She offered Cho a glare before turning to Luna, **"Won't you, Luna?"**

"**Oooh, yes, I'd like to," **Luna sounded just like someone had made her day which was a stark contrast to Cho who looked disappointed as she sat back down.

Ginny found herself letting out a sigh of relief. Maybe she hadn't been completely irrational if Cho had looked that disappointed. Besides she would trust Luna with her life, so there was no doubt that she could help Harry more than Cho could.

"**How do we get out?" Harry asked Neville. **

"**Over here." **

She watched as Luna got to her feet and joined Harry. Neville led the pair of them to the exit out of the Room of Requirement. It took all her willpower not to follow him. It was stupid, more than stupid, to go walking through the corridors of Hogwarts but from the looks of the injuries on the rest of the D.A. it was no more stupid than it was for the rest of them to do that.

He was here now and she could help him, as she had wanted to do for so long. She could watch out for things or create a diversion somewhere else to give them safe passage.

She shook her head softly.

No, that was a stupid idea.

"Hey, Ginny," Ron said interrupting her thoughts and nodding towards the exit. "What was all that about?"

She dismissed his comment with a smile and a shrug of her shoulders. "It's good to see you too."

Ron hugged her and she held onto that hug for longer than normal. He grinned at her. "Good to see you too." He nodded to the door, "but the Cho-Luna thing?"

Ginny choose to ignore that comment instead keeping the tone light; she didn't want to talk about those irrational feelings until at the very least she knew how Harry felt about things. "Not gained any subtlety in the last nine months, I see."

"It's an overrated quality, just like patience." He grinned. "You do know you have nothing to worry about by the way?"

"What?" she spluttered, caught off guard by her brother's comment.

"He's missed you as well," he dropped his voice.

"He told you that?" she questioned looking directly into her brother's face trying to detect any part of a lie.

"You could just tell." Ron said softly before turning to Hermione. "We should be doing something too, in case he finds it."

Hermione paused for a moment, obviously running through several options in her mind before continuing. "We could always try _that_ bathroom, you know, the Polyjuice one."

"That would work," Ron agreed quickly, "See you later, Ginny."

"We're sorry, Ginny." Hermione's apology sounded sincere.

"Still can't tell me." Ginny smiled softly. "Don't worry, I kinda get it."

"I'll explain it all when we make it out of the other side of this tomorrow." She smiled softly and continued, "That is, if Harry doesn't want to cover that but I think he will." Hermione turned back to Ron. "Okay, let's go."

Ginny watched them leave before turning to Neville. Okay, she couldn't go with Harry and Luna and she may not have a clue what Ron or Hermione were up to now, but they were helping Harry. She could do that; it just meant not listening to his protests about wanting to work alone and fighting anyway.

She glanced around the room and realized that most of the D.A. did not look like they were in any shape for this battle. Neville was sporting so many injuries it made the ones she had suffered at the hands of the Carrows look like paper cuts. Seamus' face had been completely disfigured and she really didn't want all the details of how that had happened. Knowing how the Carrows worked, that would only send shivers down her spine.

If they were going to act, they could not win this alone. And if the coins could help to send messages to her and Luna, they could easily call everyone back who had been in the first D.A. and had been forced to leave or had already finished their Hogwarts education. And it was not just the D.A. that would want to fight, the Order would want to be involved as well and she was sure many more would once they learned that the battle was on.

"We need to get everyone back," she said as she met Neville eyes.

"I've already sent messages on the coins," he reassured her. "Let's just hope people are watching them this year."

"They will be." She was confident of that this year, unlike last, with the different climate in Britain people would be looking at their coins, especially after the Gringotts' dragon everyone seemed to be talking about. "What about Flooing? We have done it before from here."

She watched as several fireplaces appeared in the wall.

By Merlin, this room was good.

"We'll get everyone organised and set about it," Neville grinned at her and asked, "You want to chair this meeting, you've missed a few and you owe us."

"Oi," she called over the noise that had filled the room, she waited less than a minute for complete silence to fall before continuing, "Neville said it was my turn to chair the meeting since apparently I've been neglecting that duty." A few people laughed. "Anyway, I've used this room to make Floo calls all the time and the room knows it. Fireplaces are already turning up on the walls so we're going to use them to call anyone at all we think will fight."

Within minutes Floo calls were made and more and more people started to appear in the room. Among the first to arrive were Colin Creevey, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet and Oliver Wood. They were shortly followed by Kingsley Shacklebolt, Remus Lupin, Bill, Fleur, and both her parents.

Ginny slipped back into the dark corners of the room. There was a reason why she had let Fred make the Floo call to their parents. She knew exactly how her mother would react to her being here. She had heard the lectures. She knew exactly what both her parents thought about her fights at Hogwarts but none of that changed what she was doing here.

Molly Weasley was circling the ever growing crowd of people with one goal in mind. Those fierce brown eyes were narrowed and Ginny knew that look only too well. She was looking for her child who had broken the rules. That look was normally a sign to run and let her mother calm down before facing her.

"Ginny!" her mother's shrill voice echoed across the room stunning everyone into silence.

Bugger!

This was it.

Her mum was going to scream and enter into a classic Molly Weasley fit. Oh Merlin, she was going to throw this fit in front of the whole room. And those people here, who thought she had a temper, had never seen her mother. They were about to witness a full Weasley explosion. This was going to be so much worse than when she had sent that Howler to Ron in her first year. She was right there in the room instead of just her voice. Her mother could breathe more fire than a dragon when she got going. Ginny was very aware that as much as the red hair and the brown eyes, the Weasley temper was something that she had inherited. And that Weasley temper was about to blow.

Well at least today, if she couldn't avoid the explosion, she could match it.

"Mum," she replied.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?" Molly's voice had risen several octaves.

"I need to be here," she said firmly, trying to keep her temper in check.

Molly crossed the room and she looked every part the protective lioness protecting her cub. She grabbed Ginny's arm, just like a lioness holding onto her cub. The hold was strong, protective but also equally fierce. It was a grip that only tightened as she tried to pull away and get out of her mother's grasp.

"Get off, Mum."

Her mum fixed her with a glare. "Only if you say you are going home."

"There's absolutely no way." She met her mother's eyes. "No way at all I'm going, this is my fight too."

"No, it's not." Her mum's voice was rising again. "Not for another year!"

"Surely you're not lecturing me on age," she could not stop her own voice from rising as she spoke, "we've already been through this, I've already seen more and done more than half the people in this room. I've been fighting Death Eaters since I was fourteen."

"Ginny, there is no way!"

"Mum!"

Before their argument could go much further, the door to the Room of Requirement opened and relief flooded through Ginny. Not only could she see Harry and that he was safe but now the attention was off her. She pulled her hand again but despite the fact that her mum's attention was also fixed on Harry, her grip had not lessened in the slightest.

"**Wh–?"**Harry looked amazed as he all but fell down the last few stairs in shock.

Lupin rushed over to him and met Harry at the bottom of the stairs. **"Harry, what's happening?"**

"**Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading the school–Snape's run for it–What are you doing here? How did you know? **

"**We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed." **

"**What first, Harry?" called George. "What's going on?" **

"**They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting." **

Excitement took over the room and was released with a great roar. People started pulling out their wands and there was a surge towards the door. People were ready, you could hear that in the mingled eager cries of "Hi" and the quick movements as they headed into the rest of the castle on bulk.

"**Come on, Luna," Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand, she took it and followed him back up the stairs**_. _

Ginny made to pull away again but was stuck in the thinning crowd in her mother's hold. As she pulled and the struggle became more obvious, a small crowd of her father, brothers, Fleur and Lupin gathered around them.

"Get off, Mum!" she screamed. "I need to get up there!"

"You are not going back into that castle!" Molly shouted every word.

"Fine!" She yelled back. "Make Fred, George and Bill go back to Auntie Muriel's too."

"They are of age! They are adults!"

"So what!"

"**You're underage! I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!" **

"**I won't!" **

Ginny looked to see Harry approaching as she finally pulled herself out of her mother's grip. Her hair even flew with her turn as she used all her force to pull away and then step back.

She glanced up to the exit, watching the other D.A. members leaving the room. This had to be her trump card; she had been one of their leaders, she had been fighting Death Eaters on a weekly basis, taking them on. Surely she should not be forced home like a child.

Her mother just had to understand that, and even if she didn't, the rest of her family had to understand.

"**I'm in Dumbledore's Army–" **

Molly interrupted. **"A teenagers' gang!"**

"**A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" said Fred. **

Ginny smiled at her brother. She knew he would support and understand. Fred had always understood her, treated her as an equal and only babied her as a joke. He knew her so well.

"**She's sixteen!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking bringing her with you–" **

Damn it, damn it!

Fred had shifted slightly away and George had even glanced downwards. If they showed signs of weakness, she was never going to win this. Why did they have to look even a little ashamed of themselves? She could hex them into next week for that.

"**Mum's right, Ginny,"**Bill spoke gently but right now she could have killed him, this was another hammer blow to her heart. Damn it! She would have preferred him to shout, in a weird way that would have made things easier.** "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right." **

"**I can't go home!"**Ginny shouted; she was not willing to give in yet.

It was not just that she needed to fight and had to help Harry, it was so much more. How could she go home and sit like a good little girl? How could she let the rest of her family fight while she sat and waited for news? What if the worst happened and she was not there to stop it?

How could she live knowing that she had just stepped aside when it had truly counted?

She could feel the angry tears well inside her and she cursed them. She didn't want to cry, that would ruin her point, but she could not stop them.

Her voice was laced with emotion as she continued her protest.**"My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and –" **

She looked directly at Harry for the first time that evening. She had been scared to do that all night, unsure what she would see. Fearing rejection, she could not allow herself to focus on those feelings if she wanted to fight in a war but if anyone could help her now, if her family would listen to anyone, it would be Harry. For the first time in what seemed an eternity**–** so much had happened since the first of August**–** deep emerald green interlocked with warm amber brown. The look connected all the looks of longing they had ever shared. It conveyed so much in just a few seconds and even went so far as to beseech him for his support.

Surely he had to back her up. If he loved her half the amount that she knew that she loved him, he wouldn't, couldn't turn her down. He knew how much this meant to her and surely he couldn't side with her mother over all of that.

Her heart had dropped within moments as he crushed it with a shake of his head.

Slowly she turned away, bitterly.

That really was it.

"**Fine,"**she stared at the entrance that led back to the Hog's Head and supposed safety as she spoke. She did not want him or any of them to see her tears any longer. She took a deep breath and huffed out.**"I'll say good-by now, then, and–"**

Just as she was about to leave however she heard a lot of scuffling followed by a great thump. Percy had climbed out of the tunnel from the Hogs Head and like a prized prat he had overbalanced and fallen. Despite everything it was hard not to snigger at her older brother's entrance. It was only as he pulled himself up to the nearest chair and looked around the room that she worked out what this meant.

Percy, the prized, Ministry-loving moron, her prat of a brother, the one who had used to help her with her homework when she was trying to catch up in her second year had come back.

He straightened his horn-rimmed glasses, with all the pomp of being Percy as he spoke,** "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I–I–" **

Percy looked embarrassed and his words dried up as he spluttered into silence. He looked round them, his eyes clearly in shock. He must not have expected to see them all here, just as they had not expected to see Percy, of all people, show up. The heated, angry and highly emotional atmosphere disappeared into the silence and the sheer astonishment of what was happening.

Finally it was Fleur turning to Lupin that broke the uneasy silence, trying to ease the tension. **"So– 'ow eez leetle Teddy?" **

Ginny glared briefly at her older brother. After all he had said and done how could he be allowed to come back like this? How could she be forced to leave due to age, and he be allowed to fight? She was more than a little tempted to yell at him but silence worked so much better. Growing up in the Weasley house, they were all used to noise, even shouts. Fiery, heated discussions were part of growing up. Silence was much more unnerving and harder to deal with. This was much colder, more like ice freezing over them. 

"**I–oh yes–he's fine!" Lupin said**__**loudly**, taking Fleur's lead to break the tension.**"Yes, Tonks is with him–at her mother's–"**

Percy and the rest of her family were still standing around staring at each other. They were frozen to the spot and clearly distracted, but she could not allow herself to get like that. It was the first time since her mother had entered the Room of Requirement that she had taken her eyes off Ginny and she could use this to her advantage.

She became aware that they had finally jerked into conversation but she let Percy's words wash over her in the background, not really listening to them. Percy, it seemed, was being accepted back into the family, which was good, really good but she didn't have time to focus on this. She could hear the words later; no doubt Fred or George would fill her in, in a highly amusing fashion. This might be her one chance.

Quietly and thankfully she had already slightly dislodged herself from the rest of her family and headed for the stairs.

"**Ginny!" barked Mrs. Weasley. **

Bloody hell!

She had nearly reached the door and would have been out of her mother's reach. Drat it! Her mother had not been as distracted as she had first thought and had seen her attempt to escape and head for the stairs. Why couldn't she have just spent a few moments more with Percy, her lost, prodigal son? She could have got out if her mum had done that.

"**Molly, how about this," said Lupin. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?" **

"**I–" **

"**That's a good idea," said Mr. Weasley firmly, "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?" **

Why did her dad have to use that look and tone of voice with her? Why couldn't it have been her mum to give the final instruction? That would have been much easier to argue against or to ignore. Her dad was different to her mum in so many ways. He rarely enforced the rules in the Weasley family, but when he did, his children listened.

Anyone who thought her mother had the only say on what her children did was very, very wrong and did not know her father at all.

Reluctantly she nodded as her eyes met her father's unusually stern gaze. She still did not like the idea of not being involved but staying here was better than being forced to sit wait with Auntie Muriel**–**much, much better than that. And no matter how she felt, it just was not in her to go up against her dad and both her parents knew that.

She watched glumly as her parents, along with Lupin, headed off up the stairs.

Damn it, damn it, why could she not go against her dad?

"**Where's Ron?" asked Harry, "Where's Hermione?" **

"**They must have gone up to the Great Hall already," Mr. Weasley called over his shoulder. **

"**I didn't see them pass me," said Harry. **

"**They said something about a bathroom," said Ginny, "not long after you left." **

"**A bathroom?" **

Without a second glance back at her, Harry crossed the room and opened the door to the bathroom before looking back round. **"You're sure they said bath–?" **

Harry looked preoccupied by something but he seemed to shrug that off and left the room without saying another word to her, leaving her completely alone. The next Merlin knows how long passed very slowly. There was the occasional trickle of people coming through from the Hogs Head but other than that the room was pretty deserted.

The room was just so empty and quiet.

This was even worse than detention in those cold dungeons. While they may have been awful and summoned the worst of memories at least she had not been left out of the battle. Hell, it was harder than watching her friends being cursed in detention, it may have been hell to watch but at least she knew what was going on then. Anything could be happening now and she could not help but imagine what was happening especially after all the dreams that she'd had this year.

Slowly the trickle of people came in from the other way; it was the students who were being evacuated from the school, the Slytherins being led by Professor Slughorn and Pansy Parkinson.

Parkinson's face lit up with glee as she saw her.

"Weaslette," she almost sang.

"Parkinson," she spit back.

"What you doing here? I thought you'd be out their preparing to die with your boyfriend and the rest of your family." Parkinson's smug face lit up with a grin. "Or are you too young to be killed directly by the Dark Lord as he crushes your forces?"

"Shut it!" Ginny growled back.

"Come on, Pansy," Harper spoke touching the older girl's shoulder. "You don't need to add to the guilt; she already has it in bucketsful to be here."

"Andrew," she called.

Harper broke away from the knot of Slytherins now exiting the school. "Ginny."

"You're leaving?" She looked into his blue eyes. "Running?"

Andrew shrugged. "You're not fighting either."

"That's not out of choice," she replied bitterly, "I'm not of age yet. You've got the choice though."

"You know what I don't get about the Weasleys? You're all against prejudice but you're so full of it yourself. You think you've taken the moral high ground and that lets you preach those 'virtues' at other people," Harper spat back. "Well, some of us don't want all that. Some of us have common sense. We know what it's like to have people die. We know when it's a losing battle and we don't want to join them." He stared directly at her. "You don't need to lecture me!"

"Andrew, it's just..."

"No, Ginny, it's not," he cut her off. "All the statistics in the history books are real people with families, not just numbers." He paused, composing himself. "Sometimes running into a battle without a plan, with no back up and wandless is just plain stupid, not brave. You need to think more like Slytherins at times. Being reckless, thinking with your heart instead of your head will just get you killed. Trust me, I should know. I guess, maybe it's good you're underage as your heart seems to be seriously dictating your head. I'm not stupid or reckless, I'm following Slughorn, you should do the same." The look he was giving her softened. "I really hope you get through this and I'll see you next year, Ginny."

"Yeah, I hope so too," she said softly.

With that Andrew turned and left.

Ginny stared after him doubting herself and her actions for the first time. Surely a group of teenagers going up against highly trained Death Eaters was not the wisest idea. She felt herself give an involuntary shake. He was right; they were not all going to make it out of this but she had known that all along, so why was it hitting her now?

They really could die today.

They could join that ever growing list of deaths attributed to Voldemort.

She took a couple of deep breaths. No, that didn't matter. All those people died doing the right thing. Surely it was better to die doing what was right than to live like a coward, just as her parents had always told her.

So why the hell were they keeping her in here?

"Ginny," Colin Creevey broke through her thoughts.

"Colin," she turned to look at him.

"You underage too?" he asked and she nodded in a quiet response. "Well, I didn't risk coming back to this castle to be sent home. I'm just waiting for the rest to disappear and then I'm going back out there. You want to come?"

Her heart was torn between helping the cause she believed in and listening to those she loved.

"I can't," she finally said.

Colin looked at her questioningly, but dropped the look as soon as she glanced at the floor. She was never going to be able to explain or justify staying in this room, not even to herself. Instead they waited in silence for a good five minutes before Colin headed back to the exit.

"I'll tell you all about the battle tomorrow." Ginny just nodded, no doubt many people would be telling her all about the battle tomorrow. "See you later, Ginny," he finished calling over his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll see you later."

She was not left alone in the room for long. She didn't even have time to dwell on the conflicting thoughts and feelings that were running through her head, focusing on the guilt before the entrance to the Hogs Head opened again. This time Tonks, Aberforth and Neville's grandmother came through.

Aberforth gave her a small nod before heading straight upstairs but both Tonks and Mrs Longbottom turned towards her looking for answers.

"Ginny," Tonks exclaimed, "what's going on?"

"They are fighting out there," she explained but before she could stop herself her frustrations broke through and she added, "Mum wouldn't let me out so I couldn't tell you anymore."

"And she's quite right too," Mrs Longbottom said, "I do believe that you are not of age yet."

"Yeah, that's right," she muttered.

Luckily for her, before Mrs Longbottom was given a chance to add to the lectures that she's already received, the exit to the castle opened again. At least she wasn't being given time to dwell on things with all those comings and goings.

Standing in front of her were Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Her heart buoyed. They were still safe, at least for the moment and they must have news. They must know about everyone else as well.

"**Ah, Potter,"**Mrs Longbottom turned her attention to Harry and spoke crisply.**"You can tell us what's going on."**

"**Is everyone okay?" said Ginny and Tonks together. **

"'**S far as we know," said Harry. "Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?" **

"**I was the last to come through," said Mrs. Longbottom. "I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now Aberforth has left his pub. Have you seen my grandson?" **

"**He's fighting," said Harry. **

"**Naturally," said the old lady proudly. "Excuse me, I must go and assist him." With surprising speed she trotted off toward the stone steps. **

**Harry looked at Tonks. "I thought you were supposed to be with Teddy at your mother's?" **

"**I couldn't stand not knowing –" Tonks looked anguished** and Ginny could completely understand what she was feeling. This was hell not knowing_. _**"She'll look after him – have you seen Remus?"**

"**He was planning to lead a group of fighters into the grounds –" **

**Without another word, Tonks sped off. **

"**Ginny," said Harry, "I'm sorry, but we need you to leave too. Just for a bit. Then you can come back in." **

A sense of sheer delight and relief flooded through her. This was it; she was finally going to get out of here. She was finally going get her chance to leave her sanctuary. She was being let out by someone who had told her to stay. This was a bit of luck, her excuse to go and fight. She smiled; after all, she had been told to leave the room.

"**And then you can come back in!"**Harry shouted after her as she ran up the steps after Tonks_. __**"You've got to come back in!"**_

Like hell she was going back in there!


	19. Ginny's Battle

Chapter Nineteen: Ginny's Battle

**Disclaimer:** 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

**Author's Note:** This chapter uses lines directly taken from _**Deathly Hallows**_ chapters _Thirty-One: The Battle of Hogwarts, Thirty-Three: The Prince's Tale, Thirty-Four: The Forest Again_, and _Thirty-Six: The Flaw in the Plan_. These lines have been highlighted in bold text.

Without a second look back she was off.

She chased Tonks up a shaking and dust coated staircase to the nearest window which was missing several panes and started firing curses out of it. She wasn't going to waste any time now that she had finally been let free from her prison. Staring out the window she saw jets of green and red being fired at the castle. It had to be only a matter of time before the Death Eaters broke through.

"**Let's hope he steps on some of them!"**__**said Ron as more screams echoed from close by**_**. **_

Ginny glanced out the window to see Hagrid's half-brother Grawp swing a stone gargoyle that had been on the roof moments earlier and aim it towards the grounds.

"**As long as it's not any of our lot!"**she called back at them as she sent another jinx into the crowd below.

She even allowed a smile to grace her lips briefly as her jinx met its target and hit a Death Eater amongst the chaos in the school grounds.

"**Good girl!"**roared Aberforth as he sprinted past them, his gray hair flying as a group of students including Gerry Kennedy, Padma Patil, Susan Bones and Elizabeth Jones following him. The dust was floating up even as their feet barely touched the floor with the speed they were running.**"They look like they might be breaching the north battlements, they've brought giants of their own." **

"**Have you seen Remus?" Tonks called after him. **

"**He was duelling Dolohov," shouted Aberforth** over his shoulder without looking back_, _**"haven't seen him since!"**

"**Tonks," said Ginny, "Tonks, I'm sure he's okay –" **

Tonks didn't let her finish her sentence as she ran off into the dust after Aberforth, which was probably a good thing as she had no idea how else she could continue that sentence. How on earth could anyone be okay in this fight? Not sure what else she could do or say she turned and looked back helplessly to Harry, Ron and Hermione, just looking for some reassurance.

She wanted the three older Gryffindors to lie to her and tell her things were going to work out, that they were going to be okay, so she could let herself believe that, even if it was just for the briefest moment before the grim reality of war was forced back into her consciousness with flying curses.

"**They'll be all right," said Harry**, although he did not look as if he believed it even for a second; he really needed to learn to lie better. **"Ginny, we'll be back in a moment, just keep out of the way, keep safe – come on!" he said to Ron and Hermione, and they ran back to the stretch of wall beyond which the Room of Requirement was waiting to do the bidding of the next entrant.**

Ginny stood still for a full minute after she watched them disappear, stunned. She was at a loss as to what to do now and it was only the castle shaking again that woke her senses. She could not stand here, it wasn't safe but more importantly, standing here was not in her nature.

Without much further thought she broke into a run, sprinting up the same dust coated corridors that Tonks had run through, finally catching up with her, two corridors down. She was not going to let Tonks run off into this on her own.

She followed Tonks as far of the entrance, throwing curses and hexes as she ran, only in time to see Dolohov fire the Avada Kedavra curse at Lupin. She watched in shock as her old professor fell to the ground and lay spread-eagled. She gulped, trying clear her dry throat and even despite the cries and curses flying round she felt the slow trickle of tears fall down her cheeks.

Surely this could not be happening, not to Lupin. He knew so much magic; he had taught her. If he could die, so could anyone.

And it wasn't just that, Teddy was barely a month old.

This just wasn't right.

"NO!!!" Tonks' shrill scream broke through her thoughts.

Ginny paused using a mixture of a sleeve of her jumper and her arm to dry her tears. She didn't have the time for them yet before she turned to watch Tonks fly after Lupin's murderer. She readied herself to fly off after the former Auror but before she had even started to run after her a jet of red flew right by her. Quickly and using all the skills and agility she had learnt on the Quidditch pitch, she dived before sending her own hex back up. She was not even given time to stop her hair flying in front of eyes, before she was locked in a fight. Ducking and diving as she threw hex after hex it came to her: this was really war.

She fought on instinct against the masked figure, barely aware of what she was doing and just firing out as she could. As she moved from fight to fight, stunned Death Eaters falling to the floor with each small victory, she became dully aware of other people dropping out.

Their war was over and at least they were at some kind of peace.

Her battle however was very much still going on and it was taking all her energy to survive. She did not have time to spare a thought to Colin Creevey, Demelza Robins or Terry Boot who all had lost their battles and had fallen to the floor in similar fashion to Lupin. She was sure that she would grieve later, but if she let her heart rip now she might as well give in. She could not allow herself to get distracted, to let her heart interfere with her head. As hard as it was, and it was bloody hard, she just had to ignore her friends that now lay down in the grounds.

With grim determination and sweat she carried on.

Opponents blended into each other and the only sign about how much time was passing was the aching of her limbs and there was no doubt that there were several rather impressive bruises that were already starting to form. Although each time she threw herself at the floor she did not let herself think of the injuries she was sustaining or the blood from the cuts that she was now sporting. She had worse injuries this year. Besides they could be healed later, being on the wrong side of an Avada Kedavra curse could not.

"**You have fought," said the high, cold voice, "valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery."**

The whole castle and the grounds froze, fighters and individual battles stopped mid duel as Voldemort's voice reverberated through the air. A chill ran down her spine and it felt as if he was standing right next to her. The hair on the back of her neck rose slightly; he was one deathblow away from her and ready to strike her down without a second's notice.

"**Yet you have sustained heavy losses. If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste."**

Ginny could not stop herself glancing around at the heavy losses. It shook her to the very core. Voldemort was right, there were over a dozen bodies not even counting those wearing Death Eater colours scattered across the grass and these were only the dead who had fought in the grounds. Surely there were others inside the castle as well.

Her eyes found Demelza's body again and guilt flooded through her. Demelza had been so careful this year and had stopped her from doing so many stupid things. She had been one of the best friends that anyone could ask for, giving her every bit of support that anyone could have needed. And that's how she had got messed up with all this—by being her friend.

She was barely given time to let those thoughts cement in the pit of her stomach when she saw the bright pink of Tonks' favourite hair colour on one of the bodies lying on the floor.

Oh God, no!

Not Tonks as well.

She wanted to fall to the floor. She wanted to sink into it, to let it overcome her. She wanted to be buried with her with her friends, the innocent who had already lost their lives.

"**Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately."**

Through tear filled eyes, she watched as a blur of masked figures started to disappear back into the Forbidden Forest, leaving them alone with their fallen—with their heroes.

"**You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured." **

"**I speak now, Harry Potter, directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every last man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."**

Her heart plummeted even further until she thought that there was no place lower for it to go. She found herself praying that Harry had not heard those words. The noble prat would go straight to him and get himself killed. Harry's nobility knew no bounds at times and if there was one thing she knew about him, even if everything else had changed since August, Harry would not let others get hurt for him.

Harry was a true Gryffindor to the core and she dreaded that one of her worst fears was just about to come true. Now that he had been given the choice and the very reason to go, he was going to give in to that damn noble core. He was going to do something stupid and noble that would get him killed.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

She could only hope, pray that someone talked some sense into him. Thank God both Ron and Hermione were still with him. They wouldn't let him sacrifice himself like the noble prat he was.

"Ginny," Alicia Spinnet called to her.

"Hey," she muttered back without even looking up at her.

"It will work out, Ginny." Alicia wrapped her arms around Ginny's shoulders as she spoke, "We'll see it out the other side."

"Yeah," she glanced up at the older girl, even briefly allowing herself a smile.

Ginny allowed herself to be led away from the thoughts of Harry's noble stupidity and the bodies of her friends. She walked in a daze letting reality wash over her. She could not dwell on this, it would sink her. She had to focus on the good little things and make it through with those.

She was still alive barely, but she was still fighting and if Voldemort was calling for Harry to meet him he still had to be alive, at least for the moment anyway.

"Ginny!" George called over as she reached the entrance to the castle. "You do know Mum is going to skin you alive for being out here?"

She grinned at him. It felt good to smile despite everything that had happened. "Yeah, maybe."

"No kidding, Ginny," George even allowed himself to laugh as he continued, "if the Death Eaters don't kill you, she will."

Her spirits even lifted a little more as she saw Luna walking into the castle with Ernie Macmillan and Seamus Finnigan from one direction and Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil from the other. There were still people out there, people still fighting.

Entering the castle was strange. The corridors that were normally filled with chatter, bangs and laughter were deathly silent and you could have heard a wand drop to the floor. The stone both on the walls and the floor was coated in blood, the bright red staining every part of the school and right now it was hard to believe that this castle was a school with the state it was in.

The giant house hourglasses were broken, hit by curses. Slytherin green emeralds were scattered over the flagstones, just as the red rubies of Gryffindor had been the year before when the world had come crashing down on them. Part of the banisters had been blown away, wood scattered everywhere.

For once the castle looked like it was actually over a thousand years old.

She turned the corridor to enter the Great Hall. The large room had a knot of people which was ever growing as more people seemed to stream in. The large house tables were gone and they had been replaced by a row, a line of the dead in the middle of the hall. She allowed herself to look at it briefly, seeing the bodies of Katie Bell, Anthony Goldstein, Hestia Jones and Irma Pince before she had to turn away burying herself deeply into the chest of her older brother.

George wrapped his arms tightly round her, hugging her, holding her and not letting go.

"Thing will work out," he whispered to her.

"I know," she muttered, but not really believing her words.

"Come on then, let's get that spitfire, defiant, Weasley attitude that has made you risk Mum's temper even today, of all days, back," George smiled briefly at her, and she couldn't help but smile back. George always knew the right thing to say at times like this. "Let's get going, you."

Ginny looked around the room again, this time focusing on the survivors. Madam Pomfrey was standing on a raised platform and organising a group of helpers to treat a line of injured, which included Firenze who was shaking as he lay with blood pouring at an alarming rate from his flank.

Other survivors were gathered in groups. There was a mixture of emotions scattered on every face, joy, relief, fear and grief amongst them. Eyes reflected so many different feelings shining through the tears and people were just holding onto each other, reassuring each other, doing what little they could.

She saw her mum and the two pairs of brown eyes connected at the same time_._ She felt herself shrug back. She knew that look only too well and it was never a good sign. Her mum was not happy about seeing her out here but she should have known to expect that.

"Ginevra Molly!" Molly Weasley's voice carried over the Great Hall. "Ginny!"

"Time to face the music, you," George dropped his voice.

"If she goes for me, I'm blaming you too," Ginny muttered back.

"Hey!"

"Come on," she said as she smiled sweetly at him. "Who do you think Mum is more likely to believe was at fault?"

George smiled at her. "After the last year, Mum is less likely to believe that innocent looking face and your lies. She's much more aware of your behaviour now."

"Bugger," she muttered.

Despite her reluctance to go over there and be shouted at, she could not stop her movements. It was almost as if her mother was magically drawing her over and there was nothing that she could do to stop it.

"Ginny," Molly said again, this time much softer and to Ginny's amazement she pulled her and then George into a hug, holding onto them.

It was only when the hug broke, minutes later and after she had been passed over to both her Dad and Bill, that her Mum fixed those fierce brown eyes on her again. Her relief was obviously over and now she was angry, angry that her underage daughter, the one of her children that she should have been able to keep from all this was out fighting, breaking the rules and risking her safety.

This time she refused to let herself step back and show weakness. She was only out here and not going mad in the Room of Requirement because Harry had asked her to leave the room.

"Ginny!" her mother said for the third time, "What in the name of Merlin are you doing here?"

"I told you to stay in the Room of Requirement," her dad said, clearly supporting her mum.

This was going to be bad.

"I couldn't," she explained. "Harry needed the room."

"Well, you…" her mum's words were halted by something happening at the entrance to the Great Hall.

She turned her attention—it must be serious if it saved her from her mum's wrath, to Percy coming in with Oliver Wood; they were carrying a body.

Fred's.

If she thought she had cried this year it was nothing compared to the tears that were overtaking her now. All those previous tears were like a drop in a very turbulent sea, a sea that had just overwhelmed her and pulled her down.

This was Fred.

Her big brother.

He just couldn't be dead.

Ginny stayed back, not wanting to get any closer, not wanting the final confirmation, not wanting to listen to the words the rest of her family spoke. That would make it real and she didn't want it to be real; it just could not be real.

She wanted to scream at him, to demand that he get up, tell him this joke, this prank, just wasn't funny. But she didn't. She couldn't bear to see him not respond, not jump up with a laugh and that Fred grin that she was so used to seeing.

Her heart hurt and her breath—well, she was struggling to breathe right now. She would give anything not to feel right now. Not to hurt. She wanted to rip out her heart, do something that would stop her from feeling. This was too much.

Far too much.

She dared a glance over at Fred's body. George was now kneeling at his head. Oh, George. If this was how she was feeling, how would George ever live? She hardly felt she could go on and she was not Fred's twin. Her mum looked broken. She was lying across Fred's chest, her body was shaking and the loud sobs she let out were just the tip of the iceberg of things to come. This had been her mum's worst fear for far too long. Tears were streaming from her dad's eyes as she had never seen before as he stroked her mum's hair, attempting to comfort her.

Further away Bill was holding on to Fleur. She may have hardly ever seen her father shed tears but she had never seen Bill cry, and it was now Fleur who was comforting him. Percy was nearby the pair of newlyweds and looked a truly defeated man.

She took a further step backwards.

Trying to focus on something else, anything else, she looked up at the entrance again. Harry was standing with Ron and Hermione. He looked devastated but at least he was still alive; he hadn't listened to Voldemort's words.

She was torn, yet again. She wanted to run over to him, hug him, whisper in his ear, feel his hands wrap around her and be reassured that everything would be okay. She needed his words, his support more than she had ever needed them. She needed him to tell her there were still things to live for. Maybe Fred had been right, she was falling in love.

Fred.

Her heart cut open again.

She could not leave her family now.

She could not leave Fred.

She watched as both Ron and Hermione left Harry's side and walked past Remus' and Tonks' bodies to them. She wasn't even sure when those two bodies had been carried here, she had been too preoccupied with Fred. And even though she had seen their fallen bodies on the battlefield, she felt another hammer blow to her heart.

How much more of a pounding could it take and still remain intact?

This was all real, everything she had seen out there had actually happened. It was not just a bad dream or another one of those nightmares that had haunted her nights for so long, although she was positive that this night was going to haunt her dreams for much longer than those dreams had ever done.

Ron joined up with Bill and Fleur, and Percy who had left Fred's side, flung an arm around Ron's shoulder. The four of them spoke quietly, as Hermione came over to her and threw her arms around her friend in a hug.

"Ginny," Hermione said softly. "You okay?"

She forced a nod, "You?"

"Yeah, physically," Hermione nodded before she looked over at Fred, "I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," she gulped out, struggling to speak each word.

"Not yours either," Hermione challenged as she sent her a look that would rival McGonagall's for sternness. "Why are you standing way back here?"

"I don't want it to be real," she finally admitted out loud as Fleur turned to look at the pair of them, pity mixing with the tears on her pale face. "Getting nearer will make it real."

"And standing zhis far away will make zhings harder," she said softly.

Without a word, both she and Hermione made their way closer to Fred. She dropped to her knees and took Fred's hand. It was still warm; surely it shouldn't still be warm and his face still had a ghost of a smile lingering on it. It was almost like he was still alive, just sleeping. Surely he should look different now? Not like the Fred she had always known.

The tears freely flowed again, now she was filling that turbulent sea with her own tears and she let herself be dragged under. She had no desire to fight it.

She slowly stood back up, after an eternity had passed, allowing Ron and Percy to sink down to their fallen brother.

Ginny turned to look through her blurred eyes at the entrance. She needed to know that Harry was going to be okay as well but he was gone. Her heart sank as fear swam through every part of her.

"Where's Harry?" she asked softly.

Both Ron and Hermione turned to look at the entrance before looking at her. She was positive that the look of horror and disbelief that was shining on their faces was also present on her own.

"He wouldn't," Ron breathed.

"He would," she said in unison with Hermione.

She knew the answer to her own question and could feel her heart sinking. She had always known the answer to that question. He had gone to meet Voldemort, to face him and finish it. It was exactly the kind of act that made Harry, Harry and if she was honest with herself, it was one of the reasons that she loved him. It was the very reason why she had not put up a fight as he broke up with her after Dumbledore's funeral, or that she had not made things hard at The Burrow. Hell, it hurt. It stung her worse than any hex or jinx that could be thrown at her but she should have expected it.

This was Harry.

She looked at the bodies that were in the Great Hall. Demelza and Colin were lying outside. It was cold out there and she couldn't let them get cold.

Her eyes met Neville's, who had just broken away from his grandmother. He gave both her and Luna a nod before heading back out. He was doing the hardest job a leader would ever have to do by collecting the fallen and bringing the D.A. back into one room at the same time, for one last time.

She gulped. She was not sure how much more she could take; surely she should have broken by now. Maybe she was just still acting on instinct. It was much easier not to think. It had been much easier to throw herself in front of curses, bravely battering on not thinking what she may face next. But then there were very different types of bravery. And if she could be brave in battle, then damn it, she could be brave now.

"I'm going to help," she told her family.

She waited until her dad offered her a nod of approval before she joined with Luna to walk outside. The pair of them walked in silence and she forced herself to use a very different kind of bravery and courage as she entered the grounds.

She only paused briefly seeing Demelza's body, Ritchie was bent over his girlfriend, freely crying. She was about to go over and help Ritchie carry her in but heard a call.

"Ginny," came the weak cry.

She turned around. It was Bethany Kane, a sixth-year Ravenclaw a few months older than her. Her blonde hair that she spent so much time and care with was caked with a mixture of mud and blood and her body was bent in a weird position.

She barely paused to watch Neville carrying in Colin Creevey with the help of Oliver Wood before she went over.

"Ginny," Beth's voice forced out the cry again.

"Hey, Beth." She tried to smile, to give some sense of encouragement as she crouched down over her.

"I want my mum." Her cry was heart-breaking. "I want her to make the pain stop."

Ginny gulped, it was taking all her willpower to stay with her and attempt to offer some form of hope, "You'll see her later."

"I don't want to die out here," Beth pleaded.

"**It's all right," Ginny was saying. "It's okay. We're going to get you inside." **

"**But I want to **_**go home**_**," whispered the girl. "I don't want to fight anymore!" **

"**I know," said Ginny, and her voice broke. "It's going to be all right." **

Ginny knelt down next to Beth and took her hand only to feel someone move by her. She looked around, trying to find out who it was but couldn't see anything. She was either imagining things or it was someone who was invisible. It was… it had to be Harry.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to call him back, to tell him to get his arse back here. She needed him to know that there was only so much she could take and that this had finally thrown her over her limit.

She could not lose her brother, her boyfriend and some of her closest friends in one night and still stay sane. 

"Ginny," Beth called again.

"It will be okay," she struggled through holding back any more tears in her eyes as she squeezed Beth's hand.

"Tell my mum I loved her, okay?" Beth whispered.

"You can tell her yourself," Ginny challenged but even as she spoke she was aware of the sixth-year Ravenclaw's hand going limp in hers.

Ginny looked down. Beth's eyes had closed. Her body was limp and unmoving. The D.A. had lost another member to the war.

She stayed still a moment longer, only looking up when Luna came over.

"I don't want her to get cold." She spoke so quietly she wouldn't have been surprised if Luna hadn't heard her, but then this was Luna.

"Well, I propose that we take her back inside," Luna said soberly.

With Luna's help, they carried her as carefully as they could to one of the nearby classrooms where Flitwick, McGonagall and Shacklebolt had been moving the bodies.

"Goodbye, Bethany. You were a rather enjoyable dorm-mate to have," Luna whispered before she left the room.

"Yeah, bye, Beth," Ginny echoed Luna's sentiments, "thanks for all your help and I promise to tell your mum."

As the hour they had been given faded away all the survivors headed back into the Great Hall, They were not excited, like when the battle had started and the rally call had been made; so much had changed since then. There was no relief there. So many had died already including many, many of the teenage fighters. Those fighters who had links to the D.A., either under Harry or under Neville, including Luna and herself, outnumbered the older fighters in terms of deaths by at least two to one. It was almost as if a Hogwarts generation had nearly been wiped out.

Ginny glanced around the hall again and noticed Ron and Hermione doing the same thing. Harry was nowhere to be seen. He had gone.

It was minutes past their given hour and there was no movement. The Death Eaters were still gone which allowed brief moments of hope; surely no news just had to be good news but those moments where brief in the deafening silence that screamed against them.

Things were truly over.

Harry was gone and they were soon going to join him.

Finally Voldemort's voice crashed through the silence as the cruel, high pitched sound spoke to them again.

**"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone."**

Harry, dead.

No, it could not be.

Harry could not be dead.

The pain was unbearable. It was worse than a thousand of the Carrows' Cruciatus Curses being fired to the centre of her heart at the same time and she felt herself collapse just as she had done so many times when she had hit the floor in the Dark Arts classroom this year. The difference was that this time, now the curse had hit, really hit her, what did she have left to get up for, to fight for? 

It was Bill who helped her up and she let him. She didn't trust her legs or any other part of her body that her heart was responsible for bumping blood to.

How many more people that she loved were going to die as well?

Surely, it would be better to join them instead of continuing to feel this pain.

**"The battle is won."**Voldemort's words iced, dammed her pain briefly, holding it back, as she listened to them**"You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."**


	20. A New Dawn

Chapter Twenty: A New Dawn

**Author's Note:** This chapter includes lines directly taken from _**Deathly Hallows**_ _Chapter Thirty-Six: The Flaw in the Plan_. This text has been highlighted in bold text. I have decided to end this story parallel with the point it ends in _**Deathly Hallows**_. Anyone who wants to read the reunion of Harry and Ginny – please read my story _Observations_ (_Chapter Six: Harry Potter and the Nervous Reunion_).

**Disclaimer: **'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The first trickle of survivors headed out at Voldemort's words, lead by Professor McGonagall. Pain was coursing through every part of her body and penetrating her heart and Ginny found herself reaching for her wand. It was so hard to move, to follow, when all she wanted to do was sink into the ground. She was struggling to breathe right now, struggling to survive.

She was not going to live in a world without Harry; she would not join Voldemort and become a Death Eater as his cry demanded.

She did not just want to spend her life surviving day to day; surely life was worth more than basic survival.

She would rather die instead, at least she would be able to party it up in the clouds with Fred and still lie next to Harry.

There were so many things they had not had a chance to do. They had had a few days down by the lake and they were not nearly enough. They had not got in enough kisses, or spent enough time laughing. Not enough time had been spent just having fun without the responsibility of the world on their shoulders. All they had had was pain and enforced separation. She had not even had a chance to tell him that she thought she was falling in love with him.

No, Harry just could not be dead.

She couldn't let herself believe it.

George caught her arm and he must have worked out what she was thinking. His grief-stricken face was sober and deadly serious.

"Ginny, no." His words, despite being said at a whisper, were strong and powerful. "I'm not going to lose you too."

She just nodded as she joined those who headed out, both George and Bill right beside her.

The Death Eaters were walking forward, out of the forest. They came to a halt and spread out in a line facing the castle as if on command. Right in the centre was Voldemort stroking Nagini's head. Next to Voldemort was Hagrid.

**"NO!" **

Throughout everything that had happened that year, she had never heard McGonagall lose it like that. The scream was terrible and made even worse by Bellatrix Lestrange's laugh.

Ginny felt as if her world had finally been ripped apart as the proof was finally there for everyone to see. Deep inside, some small part of her could not believe it; some small part of her hung onto that little bit of hope. She fought against all reason, she needed to hope, to believe. Harry could not be dead, but here was her proof.

The hold tightened on her shoulders, holding her back from an act of stupidity but also stopping her from collapsing.

**"No!"**Ron's voice bellowed into the sky.

**"No!"**Hermione repeated her brother's cry just as hopelessly.

**"Harry!"**The tears sounded in her voice as she panted out her own strangled cry.**"HARRY!"**

This was worse, much worse than any of her nightmares. No amount of long, deep, calming breaths was going to make this any better. She was not going to realise that this was only a very bad dream. Tears flooded down her hot face, stinging her cuts and battle wounds and she made no attempt to stop them, nor did she care who saw.

Her world, everything she lived for and had fought for, had quite simply come to an end.

How could she live after everything that had happened tonight?

Her cry along with Ron's and Hermione's were echoed by the others that surrounded her. The other fighters took up the trigger, hurling a torrent of abuse at the Death Eaters. They were not going to back down. They were not going to join them. But just as the comments were getting more crude and colourful, their words were stopped, drying against their will in their mouths.

**"SILENCE!" cried Voldemort, and there was a bang and a flash of bright light, and silence was forced upon them all. "It is over! Set him down, Hagrid, at my feet, where he belongs!" **

She watched as Hagrid lowered Harry onto the grass right in front of Voldemort's feet. She wanted to run over to him, as Harry had just a year ago with Dumbledore's body. She wanted—no, needed to hold him one last time, she was not nearly ready to let go yet.

And how could Harry be at Voldemort's feet of all people. He was worth so much more than Voldemort.

Tears fogged her vision again and her mouth dried, stopping any speech and even several more anguished cries. She was being ripped apart with every breath she took, breaths that Harry would no longer be able to take.

**"You see?"**Voldemort strolled back and forward both marshalling his Death Eaters and inspecting the defenders of Hogwarts.**"Harry Potter is dead! Do you understand now, deluded ones? He was nothing, ever, but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him!" **

**"He beat you!" yelled Ron.**

The dry, restricting anguish lessened in her throat slightly and she joined in the screaming and the shouting of abuse with the rest of the fighters around her although her cries were far from the retorts with colourful language that she had given the Death Eaters for so long with their witty undertones and more raw emotion.

**"He was killed while trying to sneak out of the castle grounds," said Voldemort, and there was a relish in his voice for the lie. "Killed while trying to save himself**—**" **

Liar!

The injustice of those words hit her even more. Harry would never run away. He would never put others in danger. He was no coward and far too noble for all that. He was a right noble prat at times and that was partly the reason that he was lying there and her heart was breaking. He did this to stop others getting hurt, not that it looked like it was going to help now.

Damn it, Harry. There must have been something else you could have done to give them a chance of a future.

There was a flash of light and Neville burst from the crowd of Hogwarts defenders. She felt the hold on her shoulders tighten even more as Voldemort disarmed Neville with a mere flick of his wand and threw Neville to the ground nowhere near his fallen wand.

Oh God. Not Neville too.

She couldn't lose him too.

Not after Fred and Harry.

**"And who is this?" he said in his soft snake's hiss. "Who has volunteered to demonstrate what happens to those who continue to fight when the battle is lost?" **

Bellatrix Lestrange was laughing, a cruel, wicked and delighted laugh. Surely that bitch had caused Neville as well as many others enough pain. Someone really needed to take her down.

The hold tightened again and for the first time she looked upwards breaking away from the scene on the school grounds to see that it was Bill holding onto her. Bill, who knew the details about Gryffindor's sword thanks to the Gringotts goblins and had had Luna living with him. She caught a look of worry in his eyes before she looked back at Neville. Bill knew that she would be more than willing to run out there herself and was using his strong grip to stop her.

She was once again powerless to help her friends when they had needed her, not able to help when it truly mattered the most, just as with the D.A. this term, with Luna at Christmas and with Harry.

Harry.

Despite everything else that was happening around her, even Neville on the floor, her eyes and tears swam back to Harry. He remained still, lying there. Still gone.

Just as with Fred he was not moving, not getting up.

Harry wasn't coming back.

She tried to take several deep, controlled breaths and slow down the pounding of her heart but it wasn't working. The pain still jolted through her with every beat. If anything her pain was hurting her even more with each passing second.

**"It is Neville Longbottom, my Lord!" Bellatrix Lestrange's words broke her thoughts. "The boy who has been giving the Carrows so much trouble! The son of the Aurors, remember?" **

**"Ah, yes, I remember**_," _Neville made his way up to his feet even as Voldemort spoke. Despite the fact that he was unarmed and unprotected and completely alone in the middle of no-man's-land, he did not look like he cared and Ginny could not help but admire him more than she had ever done before.**"But you are a pureblood, aren't you, my brave boy?"**

Neville was now standing, facing Voldemort, his hands had curled into fists as if he was going to use Muggle duelling since his wand was so far away.

**"So what if I am?" said Neville loudly**_. _

**"You show spirit and bravery, and you come of noble stock. You will make a very valuable Death Eater. We need your kind, Neville Longbottom." **

**"I'll join you when hell freezes over," said Neville. "Dumbledore's Army!" **

Neville's cry was echoed by the crowd, both calling the words and cheering Neville's actions, giving him any form of encouragement that they could.

**"Very well," Voldemort spoke in dangerously low silky tones. "If that is your choice, Longbottom, we revert to the original plan. On your head," he said quietly, "be it." **

Ginny watched, stunned into stillness, as Voldemort waved his wand. Surely this was it for Neville as well. She didn't want to stand and watch, doing nothing, but couldn't move. Maybe if she was luckily, she'd be next. She could die a hero as Harry, Lupin, Tonks and most likely Neville had done.

Out of the castle windows and through the already broken glass came a flying object that kind of looked like a misshaped bird. It flew straight into Voldemort's hand and he shook out the Sorting Hat.

Surely even Voldemort had to know better than to give a Gryffindor the Sorting Hat as a way to defend himself. Hadn't he learnt that lesson five years ago in the Chamber of Secrets?

**"There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts School," said Voldemort. "There will be no more Houses. The emblem, shield and colours of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice everyone. Won't they, Neville Longbottom?" **

Voldemort pointed his wand at Neville and the D.A. leader froze as still and rigid as anyone did under the Petrificus Totalus curse did and the hat was forced on Neville's head. For the first time Bill dropped his grip on her shoulder. However, this time it was not the support of one of her brothers that was holding her back, but the wands of the Death Eaters that were now pointed at them.

If she made a stupid movement, she was not going to be the only one to suffer. They would go after every member of her family. Voldemort had already claimed that would be the case for the fighters, when he had have given the invitation to this act of stupidity._**'Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family**_.' She could not let them suffer because of her.

Instead she forced herself to look on hopelessly.

**"Neville here is now going to demonstrate what happens to anyone foolish enough to continue to oppose me," said Voldemort.**

Voldemort flicked his wand making the Sorting Hat light with fire. Neville's screams filled the air and she had never heard him scream like that even after spending hours standing helplessly as he was hit with the Cruciatus Curse in detentions. His screams split the dawn and Neville was engulfed in fire, this time physically burning as well as mentally.

That was it. They would not start a new day like this. Voldemort was not going to win and Neville was not going to suffer like this.

It did not matter what it took.

A battle came from the boundaries to the school and they heard Grawp cry out. They were running at the Death Eaters from all sides as people from the entrance came to give their support. Adding to the chaos, Voldemort's giants tried to take down Grawp just as the Centaurs finally picked a side and came out the forest firing arrows at Voldemort's Death Eaters.

Neville broke free of his curse and pulled the sword of Gryffindor out of the Sorting Hat. Ginny had barely a second to look at the long glittering silver sword with the rubied handle which had been the focus of so much of her year before Neville swung it back.

Voldemort screamed at such a high pitch it could have broken glass as Neville sliced off Nagini's head.

Cries echoed from all sides but it was Hagrid's call that caught her attention.

**"HARRY!" Hagrid shouted. "HARRY — WHERE'S HARRY?" **

It was absolute mayhem.

Ginny was barely given time to focus on Hagrid's words or the fact that Harry was missing.

The Death Eaters' line had broken as the centaurs charged at them. Their own line also broke as they tried to avoid the giants and their massive feet. They were all being forced nearer and near the castle as the Thestrals and the hippogriff that used to live at Grimmauld Place attacked the giants. At the same time Grawp was attacked the giants, punching as many as he could making the movements of Voldemort's gigantic followers even more manic and thus dangerous.

Instinct took over as Ginny headed back to the castle, herself. She wasn't even given time to think about the fact that she had just seen Thestrals for the first time. Nor did she focus on the sounds that showed hope was near as the noise from the reinforcements grew louder. Instead she found herself back in the Great Hall, firing hexes with her every movement.

She barely had time to take in all the people who were now arriving. It hardly registered that Charlie, Professor Slughorn and many other witches and wizards including several of the Slytherin students had arrived. Nor did she have time to give a second thought to the fact the centaurs and house-elves had come out to fight amongst them.

Instead her eyes fell on the insane Death Eater who, despite the chaos, was laughing manically.

"Oh look at the ickle fighters, still fighting for their dead leader." She laughed again. It was that cold cruel laugh that echoed around the grounds. "Pity to waste such time on a weak coward of a boy."

Without thought or any sense of reason, she glared at Bellatrix Lestrange before starting into a sprint. She fired a few hexes, not focusing on anyone or thinking about the fact that the Death Eaters were falling, being conquered.

Fury was building inside her and for once she was very eager to give in to the Weasley temper she had been forced to keep under control for so long. Her hair flew in front of her even as she ran, and she even ended up spitting the ends of it out her mouth as well as catching strands in her eyes like the fire that was building in her. Red mist had overcome her.

No one would talk about Harry like that.

"Shut your mouth!" She panted each word at Bellatrix as she threw the hexes she knew at one of Voldemort's most loyal, powerful and insane followers.

No sooner had she thrown her first curse and caught Bellatrix's attention did she realise how truly unprepared she was for this fight. She was ducking and diving, barely avoiding Bellatrix's hexes as she struggled to survive whereas the Death Eater was easily repelling her curses with simple flicks as her wand.

"You ready to join your boyfriend, you blood-traitor runt?" Bellatrix squealed with laughter with each word.

"Better a blood-traitor than a murdering deluded cow."

Luckily her words must have drawn the attention of others because within an instant Luna and Hermione were at her side and the three of them took to battling the female Death Eater. Curses and jets of lights were flying in all directions and they barely held their own against Bellatrix.

Maybe she would be partying it up in the clouds with Fred soon.

No sooner had she thought this when a green flash of light flew by her so closely that she could feel the power of it rushing past her neck and missing her by barely an inch.

The Killing Curse.

If she had dived just a fraction of a second later she would be dead.

**"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" **

Her mother knocked Ginny back to the floor, throwing off her cloak as she ran at the would-be murderer of her daughter. She had never seen her mother like this, the protective lioness who would do anything to protect her tribe. It was Bellatrix's laughter that unnerved her more.

She had only heard that tone in laughter once before and that was when Sirius was killed at the Department of Mysteries.

Oh, dear God; not Mum too.

She struggled back to her feet, ignoring the throbbing pain in her leg or the fact that it was sheer agony to stand. She was used to injuries this year. She would not lose her mum. Together with Hermione and Luna she aimed her wand at Bellatrix.

**"OUT OF MY WAY!" shouted Mrs. Weasley.**

With a simple swipe of her wand, a similar swipe to what she would use on the dishes at home, her mother began to duel Bellatrix. She struggled to watch but was unable to stop herself, mesmerised by every twist, slash and jab of her mother's wand. Her mother could out shout anyone and it took a very stupid person to get on the wrong side of her temper but surely her mother didn't stand a chance here.

This was Bellatrix Lestrange and so few stood a chance against her.

Ginny froze to the spot, unable to move, not wanting to keep watching but not daring to turn away.

She was going to watch her mum die as well.

Bellatrix Lestrange's smile had gone and it was replaced with a snarl, a snarl that sent shivers down Ginny's spine. Snakes rarely were stopped when squeezing the life out of their prey when they set their desire on it.

The air was lit with colour as jets of red and green were fired out of their wands. The floor was cracked, with barely missed spells. Bellatrix was fighting to kill.

And so was her mother.

**"No!" Mrs. Weasley cried as a few students ran forward, trying to come to her aid. "Get back! Get back! She is mine!" **

Now everyone left was watching either her mother's fight with Bellatrix or Voldemort's duel with Professor McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Professor Slughorn. For Ginny however, there was no contest over which battle to watch, she did not even give the evil dictator a second glance.

Breath caught in her mouth so often in the next few minutes that it left her gasping for air. Her eyes followed her mother's every movement with both amazement and fear. She had underestimated her mum so much, just as many others had done with her. She had always known there was much more to her mother than being a housewife, but seeing it was a revelation.

However, just as her admiration grew with every shot from Bellatrix's wand so did her fear. With one mistimed movement it would all be over and her mum would join Fred in the history books as a statistic of people who had died at the Battle of Hogwarts.

Life was far too fragile.

**"What will happen to your children when I've killed you?" taunted Bellatrix, as mad as her master, capering as Molly's curses danced around her. "When Mummy's gone the same way as Freddie?" **

Pain hit Ginny's heart again and she could not even imagine how her mum felt at those words. Fred's death was too raw to even speak of at the moment, let alone use for mockery.

This was going to end soon.

Ginny looked at her mum and could see the anger and emotion etched onto her face. Her mum would not take that and Bellatrix was going to reach her end by the power of a mother's love to cause it or her mum was going to make a fatal mistake based on those emotions.

**"You — will — never — touch — our — children — again!" screamed Mrs. Weasley. **

Bellatrix let out that wicked exhilarated laugh again, for one final time as she was hit directly in the heart.

Ginny was sure that everything took place in the following minutes but to her they had slowed and time had frozen just has Bellatrix's smile had done. The Death Eater fell to the floor to a series of cheers, cheers that only made Voldemort aware that his favourite and best disciple had fallen.

The high pitched scream pierced the room as Voldemort slammed Professors McGonagall and Slughorn and Kingsley Shacklebolt back through the air. They flailed through the air, writhing in pain. Voldemort was engulfed in absolute fury and the power knocked everyone backwards as if an explosion had just taken place.

Ginny's mouth dried and her whole body froze, paralysed.

Any fear that she had felt before was nothing compared to now.

Voldemort's wand was pointed directly at her mother.

**"**_**Protego**_**!"**a voice roared.

Ginny spun around disbelievingly and her heart soared. She knew every tone of that voice and would have recognised it anywhere.

Her eyes searched the crowd. The beating of her heart restarted at an alarming rate reaching fever pitch as she saw him finally, it felt like it was beating for both of them. And maybe that was right. He was there, alive, holding onto his Invisibility Cloak in one hand and a wand in the other.

**"Harry!" **

**"HE'S ALIVE!" **

Their cries of joy were short lived as they fell silent almost as quickly. This time it was not just Ginny feeling scared, the whole crowd was afraid and the tension was palpable in the air, rooting people to the spot.

She couldn't lose him again.

Voldemort and Harry looked at each other and the stare was intense before the teenage hero and the snake-like inhuman lord started to circle each other. The contrast between them was amazing, not just in their looks but also in qualities and abilities. They were opposites and they were finally being forced together for that final confrontation.

This confrontation would not just determine if the man she loved was going to die, but was one everyone's life depended on. After everything that had happened in this hall, if Voldemort was victorious he was not going to let any of them live.

Ginny gulped. At least either way she was going to be with Harry.

**"I don't want anyone else to help," Harry said loudly, and in the total silence his voice carried like a trumpet call. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me." **

**Voldemort hissed. **

**"Potter doesn't mean that," he said, his red eyes wide. "This isn't how he works, is it? Who are you going to use as a shield today, Potter?" **

**"Nobody," said Harry simply. "There are no more Horcruxes. It's just you and me. Neither can live while the other survives, and one of us is about to leave for good...." **

Ginny was lost at the words that followed barely making any sense out of the talk of Horcruxes, accidents and sacrifices as Harry and Voldemort maintained the perfect circle as they talked. She got lost even more at Harry's talk of love and what Dumbledore had planned but at least Harry believed that he could win, that they stood a chance and they might not be buried by Death Eaters in shallow graves.

**"Severus Snape wasn't yours," said Harry. "Snape was Dumbledore's. Dumbledore's from the moment you starting hunting down my mother. And you never realized it, because of the thing you can't understand. You never saw Snape cast a Patronus, did you, Riddle?" **

Shock reverberated in every fibre. Amazingly, after everything Snape had put them through this year, he had been on their side.

Would they even be standing now if he hadn't been?

Voldemort seemed stunned into silence and didn't answer as Harry continued to talk about Snape, Malfoy and wand lore. She was really going to have to get him to explain all this when they finally got a chance to sit down. Not that the confusion would matter one jot until Harry had fired his own curse at Voldemort.

Finally Harry's hand twitched and he slightly moved his wand. This was it. Whatever had happened and whatever was going to happen, it was all going to come down to the next few moments and everyone knew it. If possible the crowd stilled even further.

**"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" whispered Harry. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was Disarmed? Because if it does... I am the true master of the Elder Wand." **

**A red-glow burst suddenly across the enchanted sky above them as an edge of dazzling sun appeared over the sill of the nearest window. The light hit both of their faces at the same time, so that Voldemort's was suddenly a flaming****blur.**

Harry pointed the wand.

**"**_**Avada Kedavra**_**!" **

**"**_**Expelliarmus**_**!" **

A bang echoed round the hall and the noise was deafening. The hall was basked in light as golden flames erupted in the space between Harry and Voldemort where the spells from the two wands had met. The green jet shot from Voldemort's wand and spun, hitting Voldemort squarely before Harry caught the wand.

A mixture of feeling which spread from shock to joy to just plain relief flooded through Ginny. She could not stop a grin from lighting up her own face as Voldemort fell backwards.

Voldemort was dead.

A deafening silence filled the hall for nearly a whole minute as the sense of shock overtook joy and sheer happiness at first but it was soon broken. Screams, cheers and roars that despite the size of the grounds would put to shame any noise to mark the end of a Quidditch match in front of thousands of people. Everyone had to release the tension in some way, to let Harry know he was their hero, to thank him, and the pure noise of celebration seemed the right way to do that.

Even the very elements of the ground seemed to be celebrating as the sun from a new dawn, a new day, lit up the windows. It was almost as if some higher power than they wanted to share in the fact that the side of light had won. There was no room for rain or clouds today.

Despite her injured and throbbing leg, Ginny broke into a run as adrenaline kicked in and took over. She just had to get to Harry. After so long, she would not be parted any longer.

Ginny reached Harry mere seconds after Ron and Hermione had done. Her arms wrapped around him at the same time that Luna's and Neville's did. She was soon joined by the rest of her family, Hagrid, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Professors McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout before hundreds of others moved in.

She was shifted out of the way by people who just wanted to touch Harry, by people who did not know him but just wanted to touch their hero.

"Harry," she breathed, but her voice was lost in a tumult of noise and cries.

Reluctantly she fell back; she knew she would have to wait. She scoffed a laugh, at least she had been taught a bit of patience this year. She turned to look at the scene around her and found that she was still standing beside Neville and Luna.

"Hey," she said softly, "it's over, huh?"

"Yeah," Neville agreed, "how do you feel?"

"I'm fine," she said with a laugh that was echoed by the other two. "How about you?"

"Fine," both Neville and Luna spoke at the same time.

Ginny grinned as she glanced at her friends before briefly looking over at Harry. After claiming to be fine for so long and using the word as a defensive mechanism that could hold her together, things really were fine now, or at least they were going to be after the pain had died anyway and the rain had washed up the spilt blood. Things may hurt when the joy was gone but at least they had a chance now.

They could live their lives doing more than just surviving.

"I am positive that Harry is fine as well," Luna reassured her, "and will be over as soon as time allows."

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Ginny," Luna's voice was as serious as it had ever been, "after they have mated, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks are never parted for long and the pair of you have already been parted for too long."

She was barely given time to be anywhere close to Harry let alone talk to him, as the new day rose with the sun. Harry was needed for everyone else. As their hero, he was needed to share both in the celebrations and the grief. She watched from one side, reasonably patiently, as Harry spoke to those who had lost loved ones, and accepted the thanks of others.

He was the hero of the wizarding world and still had a part to play whether he wanted to or not and she accepted the fact that while she was in the same room and the mess was over, she was still waiting.

The survivors stayed in the hall. People were clinging to each other, hugging and kissing each other. Ginny's own hugs with her family lasted full minutes. Tears were shed but as long as they were still together it was okay.

After a small group of people had removed the bodies of the fallen Death Eaters to a chamber off the hall, including that of Lord Voldemort, far away from the ones of their side, no one else moved from the Great Hall. There would be time for everything else that needed doing later. Right now anything outside the hall could wait.

Of course, little bits of news broke through the protective hold that kept the survivors together. News that Imperiused people all over the country had come back to their senses after the spells had been lifted; that the fleeing Death Eaters were being captured and the innocent in Azkaban had been released drifted into the school. Kingsley Shacklebolt was even called out of the hall returning barely thirty minutes later with the news that he was now the temporary Minister of Magic.

However anything else, especially the interviews, could wait with the reporters at the school gates. Now was a time just for them, the people who had seen the real end to the war and fought for it. They shared a kind of bond and anything that would pull at that and yank them from each other was not welcome in the slightest.

They had to digest what had happened first, before they even thought of sharing that. They knew they were celebrating but they also knew what it had cost them.

Fred was gone and not coming back.

So was Tonks, Lupin, Demelza and so many of her friends and classmates.

At some point in the morning, and Ginny was never sure how quickly this had happened after the final blow of the battle, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout and Slughorn met in the centre of the hall and after quick discussion they restored the house tables. Not that they were house tables anymore.

Ginny glanced round the hall even as her mother came back over. No one was sitting at the house tables anymore. The teachers sat with the students, likewise ghosts and parents, centaurs and house-elves. They were all equal now. Being Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin did not matter now, they were united. The Malfoys, Harpers and Theodore Nott were mixed in with the others.

She saw Neville was with the sword of Gryffindor, Ron and Hermione were together and finally Harry with Luna.

Standing still she watched Harry. He looked completely exhausted.

"Ginny," her mother's words broke through her thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"He will have time later," her mum explained softly as she led Ginny to sit down.

Having no desire to keep standing both through exhaustion and pain, she let herself fall into place next to her mother.

Maybe being mollycoddled would not be too bad today. Her mum probably needed it, especially after Fred, and it would be nice to feel sixteen and not yet an adult for a while. It would feel wonderful to have the responsibility that had been hanging there for too long lifted from her shoulders.

They sat in silence for a long time, just absorbing, being there for each other. They had time for noise later, just as she would have time to talk to Harry later, thanks to her mum.

"Mum?" She finally broke the stillness.

"Yes, dear."

"I didn't think you had it in you."

Molly looked at her daughter's face, knowing instantly what she was referring to. "She had just tried to kill you. Of course I had it in me."

Ginny smiled, lightening the mood as her mum smiled back instantly, "I actually meant the language; you would have grounded me for that."

"And I still will." Her mum laughed briefly. "Besides, you are already grounded for leaving the Room of Requirement."

"Mum," the protest sprang to her mouth without thought, just as it had done so many times before.

"Ginny," her mother overruled, but she was sure there was still a hint of a smile there.

This felt good. Arguing or even the playful Weasley banter was back and the fact that even after everything her mum could still smile did wonders, even if the smile would disappear after the true reality of life emerged. At the moment things felt good.

Ginny paused for a moment, thinking of the right answer, the one that would get her out of trouble and she changed her expression. She shot her mother her sweetest, most innocent smile as she pondered the uses of different words.

She was not given time to reply, however.

Luna cried,**"Oooh, look, a Blibbering Humdinger!" and pointed out the window**_._

Half the Hall looked around and even despite known she wouldn't see anything, she found herself looking round as well. The one thing she did notice was that Harry was gone, no doubt back under his Invisibility Cloak. It probably had one more job to do but at least if Luna knew about it, it could not be that bad and he would be back.

"Ginny," her mum had looked round with her.

"Yeah?"

"Looking for Harry?" she questioned shrewdly.

She found herself nodding, "He's under the Cloak somewhere."

"Give him time. He's been through a lot, we all have." Molly wrapped her hand around her daughter. "He will be just fine and you can go up after him later. No doubt he will want to see you soon enough. You just have to trust him."

And she did trust him. She would have to have serious words over some of his actions over the last few hours, namely playing dead, and siding with her mother over staying in the Room of Requirement, but she really actually did understand a lot of his motives even if she didn't agree with them.

Things would work out. Now all the uncertainty was gone they had the time to sort out the smaller things. They could relax, heal and then slowly sort out the rest. There were no price tags over heads and no one wanted them dead.

She rested her head on her mother's shoulder and let herself just be.

Fin

__

Thanks.

_This has been by far the longest fiction that I have written, both in terms of word count and time taken. Therefore, I hope you will allow me a few lines. _

_The story _Hogwarts Rebellion_ formed in my mind as soon as I had finished __**Deathly Hallows**__ and people started to downplay Ginny's role in the book. I saw it that there were enough hints to suggest that she played a large part in the book, that was only restricted by the fact that she was underage throughout the book. This led to me getting even more annoyed each time her role was downplayed and her character was dismissed as just Harry's love interest. Therefore, I wanted to write a piece that showed this and I hope I have. I actually put the fiction off for over a year as I thought I knew how much work it would take, I can only say to this fact I was wrong. I thought it would be a lot of work, energy and time, it was over double what I had ever imaged, add to that, moving countries from one side of the world to the other, major computer issues and changes in my beta's life and the undertaking of this became epic. I think this makes my thanks all the more heartfelt, or at least I hope it does._

_Naturally I would like to thank anyone has reviewed, recced or talked through this story with me. Your words are greatly valued and mean everything. Thank you so much._

_The true thanks and "thank you" does not even feel like it does justice, must of course go to my beta, Gerry. I hope that she will not mind me still using the word beta, as more often or not I would use the word friend. It just goes to show what this fandom can do, how two people from very different backgrounds, places and age ranges can become so close over the three years that we have been working together. In terms of the writing of _Hogwarts Rebellion_, she has been exactly what anyone would want in a beta, she does the grammar work (which is a hell of a lot on my pieces) as well as offering ideas and support; I wouldn't trust many people as much as I trust her and because of that, this story is twice the story it would be without her. As a friend, I am not going to dwell on words just instead saying that she is second to none. Thank you, Gerry._


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